Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa

Home , Bitis, Elephant gun, Elephant meat, Hunting of elephants, Ofir Drori, The Hunting Party (Lost)

Summary Report Daniel Stiles 2011

Occasional Paper of the IUCN Species Survival Commission No. 45 About IUCN management. Membership is reviewed and reappointed IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, approximately every three years. helps the world find pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges. The group meets approximately every one to two years to review status and trends of elephant populations and to IUCN works on biodiversity, climate change, energy, discuss progress in specific areas related to conservation human livelihoods and greening the world economy by of the species. Since it was first convened in the mid supporting scientific research, managing field projects all 1970’s, the AfESG has considerably grown in size and over the world, and bringing governments, NGOs, the UN complexity. The AfESG Secretariat, based in Nairobi and companies together to develop policy, laws and best (Kenya), houses full-time staff to facilitate the work of the practice. group and to better serve the members’ needs.

IUCN is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental The challenge of the group is to find workable solutions organization, with more than 1,200 government and NGO to country and regional problems in an open-minded members and almost 11,000 volunteer experts in some atmosphere devoid of deliberate controversies. To meet 160 countries. IUCN’s work is supported by over 1,000 this challenge, the AfESG has provided technical expertise staff in 45 offices and hundreds of partners in public, NGO and advice by helping to facilitate the development of and private sectors around the world.Web: www.iucn.org national and sub-regional conservation strategies.The group has helped in the development of the Convention IUCN Species Survival Commission on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) The Species Survival Commission (SSC) is the largest system for monitoring the illegal killing of elephants of IUCN’s six volunteer commissions with a global (MIKE). membership of 8,000 experts. SSC advises IUCN and its members on the wide range of technical and scientific In addition, the AfESG has assisted in the organisation, aspects of species conservation and is dedicated to facilitation and technical preparation of the Range States securing a future for biodiversity. SSC has significant input Dialogue process and more recently, the annual African into the international agreements dealing with biodiversity Elephant meetings together with the CITES secretariat. conservation. Web: http://www.iucn.org/about/work/ This process has been instrumental in moving towards programmes/species/about_ssc/index.cfm regional consensus on controversial elephant issues.

IUCN Species Programme CITES MIKE The IUCN Species Programme supports the activities of Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) is a the IUCN Species Survival Commission and individual programme established by a resolution of the Parties to the Specialist Groups, as well as implementing global species Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species conservation initiatives. It is an integral part of the IUCN of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Secretariat and is managed from IUCN’s international headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. The Species MIKE is a monitoring system put in place across the Programme includes a number of technical units covering entire range of the African and Asian elephants to provide Wildlife Trade, the Red List, Freshwater Biodiversity information needed for elephant range States to make Assessments (all located in Cambridge, UK), and the appropriate management and enforcement decisions, and Global Biodiversity Assessment Initiative (located in to build institutional capacity within the range States for the Washington DC, USA). long-term management of their elephant populations.

IUCN SSC African Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG) It is also intended that this monitoring system would assist The AfESG is a group of technical experts focusing on the dialogue among Parties and facilitate the decision- the conservation and management of African elephants. making by the Conference of the Parties regarding The broad aim of the AfESG is to promote the long-term the protected status of elephants by providing reliable conservation of Africa’s elephants and, where possible, the information on levels and trends in the illegal hunting of recovery of their population to viable levels. Led elephants; to determine changes in these trends over time; by a volunteer Chair (currently Dr. Holly Dublin), the and to determine the factors associated with such changes group consists of some 45 volunteer members drawn and to assess to what extent observed trends are related from all parts of the continent. All members are actively to CITES changes in listings or ivory trade resumptions. involved in some aspect of elephant conservation and/or Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa

Summary Report Daniel Stiles 2011 The designation of geographical entities in this book, and the presentation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IUCN concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of IUCN.

This publication has been made possible by funding from the European Commission provided through CITES MIKE programme.

Published by: IUCN, Gland, Switzerland

Reproduction of this publication for educational or other non-commercial purposes is authorized without prior written permission from the copyright holder provided the source is fully acknowledged.

Reproduction of this publication for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

Citation: Stiles, D. (2011). Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa: Summary report. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. 103pp.

ISBN: 978-2-8317-1393-9

Cover photo: Daniel Stiles. This elephant baby could lose its mother because of tusks.

Layout by: Aksent Ltd

Produced by: IUCN/SSC African Elephant Specialist Group

Available from: http://african-elephant.org and http://www.iucn.org Table of Contents

Acronyms 9

Acknowledgements 11

Executive Summary 12

INTRODUCTION 18

Background 18

Objectives 20

Study sites 21

Cameroon 22

Central African Republic 24

Republic of Congo 27

Democratic Republic of Congo 30

Summary of previous activities 33

Cameroon 33

Central African Republic 34

Republic of Congo 35

Democratic Republic of Congo 36

National Laws related to Elephants 38

METHODS 39

Study design 39

Case study field work 40

Results 42

Hunters 42

Elephant meat 45

Ivory 48

Weapons 48

Transporters/Middlemen 51

Elephant meat 51

Ivory 53

Vendors 55

Elephant meat 55

Ivory 58

Consumers 60

Knowledge and observance of laws 61 DISCUSSION 62

Elephant Meat 62

Ivory 64

Social Networks and Commodity Chains 68

Transport Routes and Methods 73

Influence of External Factors on Elephant Killing 78

CONCLUSIONS and RECOMMENDATIONS 86

REFERENCES 89

Appendix 1. National Laws Relevant to Elephants 100 Tables

Table 1. Types of elephant hunters interviewed. 42

Table 2. Hunter’s primary motive for killing elephants. 43

Table 3. Sample cases of work effort involved in an elephant hunt. 44

Table 4. Utilization of meat from recalled elephant kills. 45

Table 5. Estimates of potential earnings from smoked elephant meat reported sold. 47

Table 6. Hunter prices for tusks (US$). 48

Table 7. Weapons used to hunt elephants. 50

Table 8. Prices that middlemen received for ivory (US$). 54

Table 9. Average retail price of wild and domesticated meats, US$/kg. 61

Table 10. Gender of meat and ivory middlemen. 63

Table 11. Estimates of ivory exported from case study countries, 1979-1988. 65

Table 12. Frequency and weights of ivory seized, 1989-early 2010. 66

Table 13. Locations where elephant meat was transported from forest source sites and sold. 73

Table 14. Locations where ivory congregates and transits after leaving source areas. 77

Daniel Stiles 7 Figures

Figure 1. Study areas and MIKE study sites. 19

Figure 2. Boumba Bek National Park and study area in south-east Cameroon. 22

Figure 3. The Dzanga-Sangha Complex (DSC) and study area in south-west CAR. 25

Figure 4. Location of Odzala-Koukoua National Park and study sites in ROC. 28

Figure 5. Location of the Okapi Faunal Reserve (OFR) and study sites in the DRC. 30

Figure 6. The volume of ivory exported from Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, 65 and Chad between 1891 and 1988.

Figure 7. Inflation adjusted average prices in US$ for >10 kg weight tusks in Cameroon, 67 CAR and DRC 1989-2010.

Figure 8. Potential earnings from meat and ivory from different sized elephants 68

Figure 9. Elephant meat social network example 69

Figure 10. Ivory social network example. 70

Figure 11. Commodity chains for elephant meat and ivory 72

Figure 12. Elephant meat transport routes from MIKE study sites in western Central Africa. 75

Figure 13. Elephant meat transport from the OFR to market. 76

Figure 14. Ivory transport routes and means from the western Central Africa study sites. 77

Figure 15. Ivory transport routes and means from the OFR. 78

Figure 16. Forestry concessions in western Central Africa. 80

Figure 17. Forestry concessions near the OFR, DRC. 81

Figure 18. CBFP Landscapes 83

Figure 19. Population growth in the Congo Basin, 1950-2050. 85

Figure 20. Gross Domestic Product. 85 Acronyms

AfESG African Elephant Specialist Group

BBNP Boumba Bek National Park

BIR Bataillon d’intervention rapide (Rapid Intervention Battalion)

CAR Central African Republic

CARPE Central African Regional Programme for the Environment

CIB Congolaise Industrielle des Bois

CIFOR Centre for International Forestry Research

CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora

CBNRM Community Based Natural Resource Management

CBFP Congo Basin Forest Partnership

COMIFAC Commission of Ministers in Charge of Forests in Central Africa

DRC Democratic Republic of Congo

DSC Dzanga-Sangha Complex

DSP Dzanga-Sangha Project

ECOFAC Conservation et utilisation rationnelle des Ecosystèmes Forestiers d’Afrique Centrale (Conservation and rational utilization of Forest Ecosystems in Central Africa)

ENRA Enzymes Refiners Association

ETIS Elephant Trade Information System, managed by TRAFFIC

FARDC Forces Armées de la République Démocractique du Congo (FARDC) The DRC national army

FCFA Franc of the Central African Financial Community

FMU Forestry Management Unit

FSC Forest Stewardship Council

GTZ German technical development agency

IFO Industrielle Forestière d’Ouesso

ICCN Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature, the wildlife and protected areas management authority in the DRC

IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature

LAB Lutte Anti-Braconnage (Anti-Poaching Combat, Cameroon)

LAGA Last Great Ape Organization (Cameroon)

MIKE Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (CITES programme)

MINFOF Ministry of Forestry and Fauna (Cameroon)

MWFHF Ministry of Water, Forests, Hunting and Fisheries (CAR)

NP National park

OFR Okapi Faunal Reserve

OSAPY Organisation d’Accompagnement et d’Appui aux Pygmées (DRC NGO)

PA Protected area

Daniel Stiles 9 PALF Projet d’aide à l’Application des Lois sur la Faune (Project to Assist Application of Wildlife Law, ROC NGO)

OKNP Odzala-Kokoua National Park

RA Research Assistant

RDS Respondent-driven sampling

ROC Republic of Congo

SSC Species Survival Commission

TRIDOM Tri Dja-Odzala-Minkebe (WWF conservation project)

TRAFFIC The wildlife trade monitoring network, a joint programme of WWF and IUCN

UN United Nations

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

WCS Wildlife Conservation Society

WWF World Wildlife Fund (USA/Canada); Worldwide Fund for Nature (international)

10 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Acknowledgements

A great number of people contributed to making this Republic of Congo – Special thanks to Stéfanie Latour project possible in many different ways and the author is for organizing and supervising field work and preparing the profoundly grateful to them all. report of the country case study. Others who assisted with information, accommodation and/or logistics are Cynthia Background, information and organization – In Moses, Eric Kinzonzi, Marcellin Agnagna, Victor Mbolo, alphabetical order: Naftali Honig, Omari Ilambu, Saturnin Ibata, Jean-Marc Kate Abernethy, Karl Ammann, Lauren Coad, Brian Curran, Froment, Aimé Bassouama, Brice Baketiba, Magdalena Pauwel De Wachter, Heather Eves, John Fa, Mike Fay, Bermejo, German Illera and Richard Malonga. The Roger Fotso, John and Terese Hart, Olivier Hymas, Peter efforts of research assistants Maurice Evoura, Chantal Lindsey, Sebastien Luhunu, Boo Maisels, E.J. Milner- Nanitélamio, Chanelle Louzolo, Adelphe Makosso, Jean- Gulland, Aimé Nianogo, Linda Rieu, Marcus Rowcliffe, Marie Bimba, Enoch Nguerre, Guillaume Meking, Armel Paul Telfer, Nathalie van Vliet and Stefan Ziegler. Madou and Gildas Bayonne are greatly appreciated.

Cameroon – Special thanks to Shannon Randolph for Democratic Republic of Congo – Thanks go to Pasteur organizing and supervising field work and preparing the Cosma Wilungula, director of the Institut Congolais pour report of the country case study, and to Hanson Njiforti, la Conservation de la Nature, for inviting the consultant to Achille Mengamenya, Expedit Bernard Fouda, Zacharie visit the Okapi Faunal Reserve. The assistance of Jean Nzooh, Ofir Drori, Eric Arnhem and David Greer for Joseph Mapilanga, Rosemarie Ruf, Karl Ammann and providing information and other needed assistance. Boyzibu Ekhassa is greatly appreciated. Nathalie van Vliet Research assistants Manfred ‘Forest’ Masumbe, Ivo shared valuable information on the Kisangani bushmeat Ngome and Limson Tangie carried out the field work and market. Willy Loyombo, president of OSAPY, and research assisted greatly in data entry and analysis. assistants Richard Lokoka and Andre Safari of OSAPY and Issa Issaka assisted greatly with field work and data entry. Central African Republic – Special thanks to Ezra Neale for organizing and supervising field work and preparing Institutional support – The author is extremely grateful to the report of the country case study, and to Jean-Baptiste Diane Skinner and Cecily Nyaga of the IUCN/SSC African Mamang-Kanga, Director of Wildlife and Protected Areas, Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG) for administration of for giving permission to conduct the study. Anna Feistner, the project and to Holly Dublin of IUCN/SSG AfESG and Angelique Todd, Arnaud Gotanegre, José Madomi and Tom De Meulenaer and Julian Blanc of CITES-MIKE for Antoine Schmitt of WWF provided generous advice and backup, advice and guidance. CITES-MIKE, through funds logistical support. Research assistants Carolin Sambo, provided by the European Union, funded the project. Justin Mamadou and Louis Fon Che provided assistance in the field and knowledge and insights on elephant meat and ivory that were invaluable.

Daniel Stiles 11 Executive Summary

Background Objectives

1. An initial assessment of the 2001-2009 carcass 6. The overall objective of the study is to enhance database of the CITES Monitoring the Illegal Killing of knowledge of contemporary elephant meat market Elephants (MIKE) programme suggests that the trade in dynamics, patterns and trends in Central African countries elephant meat, especially in the central African subregion, by undertaking an elephant meat trade impact study. The may be an important factor underlying the illegal killing results aim to establish a baseline data set of variables that of elephants. The dynamics, scale and impact of the can subsequently be monitored to assess trends in meat trade in elephant meat are not well understood and more and ivory trade at the site level. information is required, both to improve the information in MIKE and the Elephant Trade Information System 7. The findings of this study also aim to offer contributions (ETIS) and to assist with the development of appropriate to satisfy elements in CITES Decision 13.11 ‘Bushmeat’, management solutions. Decision 14.78 (Rev. CoP15), which concern updating information relating to the status of elephant conservation 2. In the forested countries of the central African subregion, and the data that MIKE is collecting, and Decision 15.74, a complex and interconnected variety of development which is an evaluation of the need to revise CITES activities take place, such as timber harvesting, mining, Resolution 10.10 (Rev. CoP 15) ‘Trade in Elephant building of supporting infrastructure (e.g. roads, schools, Specimens’. clinics) and the inflow of foreign nationals. These attract an influx of immigrants seeking work, both national and foreign, who depend heavily on bushmeat for protein. With little law enforcement capacity and weak governance Methods structures, there is a very real threat to many local elephant populations. 8. Project resources did not allow research to be carried out in all seven countries. Therefore MIKE monitoring sites 3. At present the primary factors and dynamics in the illegal in four countries were selected on the basis of number and offtake of elephants in Central Africa and, in particular, density of elephants, quality of monitoring data, available the use of not only ivory but also meat, are assumed but institutional support and extent of past bushmeat research not well understood. A deeper knowledge of the scale and to use as supportive data. extent of the killing and how the ivory and meat markets are interlinked is urgently needed. Therefore gaining 9. The sites selected were: Okapi Faunal Reserve (OFR) greater understanding of these trade dynamics could help in DRC, Boumba-Bek National Park (BBNP) in Cameroon, to ascertain the key drivers behind the loss of elephants Dzanga-Sanga Complex (DSC) in CAR and Odzala- and other species. Koukoua National Park (OKNP) in ROC.

4. African elephant range States of the Central African 10. A Methodology was developed to identify and define subregion comprise Cameroon, Central African Republic data variables to collect. Questionnaires were formulated (CAR), Chad, Republic of Congo (ROC), Democratic to guide interviews of the principal actors involved in illegal Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. elephant killing and product trading: hunters, middlemen, transporters, vendors and consumers. Data entry sheets 5. CITES MIKE has requested the assistance of the were designed to organize and store data. IUCN/SSC African Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG) to implement the ‘Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa 11. Investigations were carried out near the MIKE sites on Project’. elephant hunting and the products harvested (i.e. meat, tusks, skin, hair, etc.), the quantities transported and sold, the methods and routes taken, those involved and prices. The meat and ivory commodity chains were followed away from the MIKE sites to regional towns and finally to large cities such as Kisangani, Bangui and Brazzaville.

12 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Bushmeat markets and restaurants were surveyed to 17. In the western Congo Basin, Pygmies are often both collect data on elephant meat and when possible, ivory elephant hunters and trackers. In the east around OFR, workshops and outlets were visited to gather data on the Pygmies only track, they do not shoot elephants. Pygmies ivory trade. rarely hunt elephants on their own; they usually work on behalf of commanditaires. 12. Given the legally sensitive nature of this topic and in an attempt to be a non-threatening observer and participant, 18. Tusks are always taken from a kill and in 85% of the research teams used respondent-driven sampling hunts, elephant meat was also carried away. However, in (RDS) to identify informants, i.e. volunteers. Through three country case studies, no meat was carried away in RDS, the research teams recruited hunter, middleman, 14%, 25% and 45% of hunts respectively. The two main transporter, market vendor and consumer informants. As explanations for no meat being taken were: (1) not enough a result of limited field time (4-6 weeks per country), the porters were available to carry meat as well as tusks, or number and geographic distribution of informant types (2) the hunters feared detection and departed quickly after in each country were usually not adequate to represent removing the tusks. When meat is taken, it is usually less statistically valid samples. than half of that available.

19. Elephant bushmeat is almost always sold smoked. Results Elephants are most often hunted far from roads, as elephants tend to avoid areas of human activity, and Hunters smoking delays spoilage. It takes two to three days to 13. All 54 elephant hunters interviewed were commercial smoke the meat; so this must be done in a secure location hunters, as distinct from subsistence hunters. They to avoid detection. hunted for profit, not food. Only three (5.6%) of them killed elephants primarily for meat, one each in Cameroon, CAR 20. In the vicinity of the MIKE sites, elephant meat prices and DRC. Ivory was the stated primary motivation for 49 were approximately equal to or somewhat higher than (90.7%). meat from other species. The further the distance from the source, the higher the price for elephant meat becomes 14. Well over half (59.2%) of elephant hunters said and the differential between elephant and other meats they were paid by others to kill elephants. These increases. In regional towns and large cities, elephant commanditaires are influential government or military meat was often among the most expensive meats found, officers, businessmen or even clerics. The commanditaires being more expensive even than beef, goat and pork. order the hunt and provide money, food and other goods to the lead hunter, who organizes the hunting 21. For the hunter, the economic potential of elephant party. The commanditaire also often supplies weapons meat often exceeds that of ivory. If all meat could be and ammunition. In return, he receives tusks. The harvested and sold from an adult male (estimated to equal commanditaires are not interested in the meat, which is approximately 1,000 kg smoked) earnings would amount usually a by-product and an added incentive to the hunting to US$ 1,000-5,000, or an average of about US$ 2,600. party. Only an elephant with very large tusks (>20 kg each) could provide that much from ivory. On average, hunters 15. The two most common weapons used to hunt could earn much more from meat than from ivory from one elephants are the AK-47 and the 12-gauge shotgun using elephant. manufactured bullets, followed by proper hunting rifles (e.g. .458, 10.75). Rarely, cable snares and homemade 22. Many other products are taken from elephants for firearms are used. personal and commercial use: trunk, tail, skin, ears, feet, fat, bone marrow and possibly musth liquid (noted in 16. Elephant hunts entail a much larger expense and Cameroon). work effort than commercial hunting of smaller game or subsistence hunting. Hunting parties are on average larger 23. The carcass of a single adult elephant with large tusks (mean of seven) and more time is spent on each hunt could potentially earn hunters and/or their commanditaires (mean of 15 days) than hunts involving other targeted well over US$ 10,000. Due to logistical and security game. Without the resource input and stimulus from constraints, full potential is rarely achieved. commanditaires, it is likely that there would be many fewer elephant hunts, and consequently fewer elephants killed.

Daniel Stiles 13 Middlemen/Transporters Elephant Meat Prices 24. Meat middlemen are often women, 17 being 32. Hunters reported selling elephant meat to middlemen interviewed, while 12 male meat middlemen were for US$ 1 to US$ 2/kg or directly to vendors or consumers interviewed. Although the primary purpose of an elephant for US$ 2 to 5/kg. Middleman elephant meat selling prices hunt may be ivory, when bushmeat traders become aware vary depending on distance travelled and location of selling of an expedition being mounted, they may visit the hunting point. Middlemen sold to vendors or consumers for US$ camp to buy meat, or encounter the party upon its return at 2.60/kg to US$ 6.67/kg, although data quality is uneven. a road or in a village to make a purchase. Elephant meat Market retail prices for smoked elephant meat varied from disperses quickly to several middlemen, who take it to sell US$ 2.93/kg to US$ 13/kg, depending on type of outlet, in local or regional markets and restaurants using a variety with the average being approximately US$ 6.65/kg. Except of means of transport (e.g. motorbike, rented car or public in south-western CAR, it was usually the highest or among transport). the highest in price of all meats seen.

25. Middlemen convey relatively small amounts of elephant External Factors meat the long distance to large cities, as other bushmeats 33. Based on observations and informants’ responses, are plentiful, and transporting illegal elephant meat poses weak law enforcement, corrupt government and military a risk. Authorities rarely seize the meat, as the middleman officials and lack of means of earning a livelihood were simply pays a small inducement to carry on. found to be critical causal factors in elephant poaching, as well as in other forms of natural resource over-exploitation. 26. Middlemen sometimes pay transporters to carry meat to urban markets using logging trucks, buses, commercial 34. Most informants in this study cited abuses or collusion vehicles and even government or NGO vehicles. by the authorities in illegal wildlife exploitation activities. They expressed dissatisfaction regarding the way in 27. Those who command ivory hunts usually resell the which natural resources were managed. Poverty and lack tusks to international traders, who export the tusks, or they of alternative sources of income were cited as primary resell them to ivory workshops. Larger tusks are exported reasons motivating illegal hunting and product trafficking. while smaller, poorer quality tusks are sold for local use. Tusks are exported to West Africa (Nigeria, Ivory Coast, 35. Forestry concessions were another important indirect Senegal), to Sudan and Egypt, or to Kampala, Nairobi or causal factor in elephant killing. The three case study MIKE Addis Ababa in transit to the Far East. sites in the western Congo Basin are virtually surrounded by forestry concessions, with consequent construction 28. Middleman ivory selling prices varied from US$ 25 to of logging roads, other infrastructure, truck transport, 70/kg for <5 kg tusks, US$ 40 to 100/kg for 10-20 kg tusks the promotion of bushmeat hunting by truck drivers and and US$ 50 to more than US$ 120/kg for >20 kg tusks. the influx of immigrants in search of employment, all of Some craftsmen in Kisangani reported prices as high as which creates a demand for bushmeat. Those without US$ 250/kg, which could not be verified. employment are attracted to poaching for meat, ivory and other trade products while immigrant shop owners finance 29. Elephant meat and ivory trade paths divide and have ivory poaching. The OFR, however, is not affected by different commodity chains after leaving the hands of forestry concessions. the hunter or the first middleman. Fewer than 10% of middlemen traded in both meat and ivory, all of them 36. Other studies have shown that governments and women. NGOs working with logging companies can yield positive results when working to implement Forest Vendors Stewardship Council (FSC) guidelines. A good example of 30. Bushmeat vendors are usually women, with 49 implementation of the FSC guidelines is the Buffer Zone interviewed, along with 13 men. Elephant meat is generally Project (BZP) in northern ROC that has worked since 1999 sold clandestinely in markets cut up into small pieces or in with the Congolaise Industrielle des Bois logging company, restaurants to known customers. It is also sold directly to WCS and the Congolese Ministry of Forestry Economy. subscribers or from the vendor’s home. 37. Mining is currently a minor causal factor around the 31. Elephant meat was rarely seen in markets and western MIKE sites, attracting illegal artisanal miners near restaurants compared to other bushmeats. DSC and BBNP. Large mining developments are underway that will have a major impact on the entire western Congo

14 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Basin subregion over the next two decades. Illegal mining General Conclusions has been taking place inside the OFR for almost 20 years, but it does not appear to stimulate elephant poaching. 41. Hunters that specialize in elephants are commercial Miners do purchase elephant bushmeat, however. hunters who primarily target ivory. They often work on behalf of wealthy commanditaires who subsidize elephant 38. The recent upgrading of public roads in the Cameroon, hunts with weapons, ammunition and supplies in exchange ROC and DRC study areas has promoted elephant killing for tusks. Meat is an important by-product of these hunts, by facilitating transport of illegal products. along with other parts from the elephant, and these non- ivory products are often part of the incentive for hunters 39. Human population growth around protected areas is and porters to participate in arduous elephant hunts. a major negative factor, as a growing population raises Elephant hunts tend to involve more work effort than demand for bushmeat and the greater number of destitute subsistence hunts; elephant hunting parties are larger, people living near protected areas increases the number of travel longer distances and last longer than subsistence those who will poach to survive. hunts. Illegal killing for ivory and meat are closely linked, but ivory is more often the primary motivation because (1) 40. Linked to population growth is the increasing conflict commanditaires subsidize the hunts in exchange for tusks, between humans and elephants as humans expand (2) tusks require less manpower to transport and (3) by into elephant habitats in search of new agricultural land unit weight, tusks provide a much higher return. and forest resources. In some areas outside of PAs, the number of ‘problem’ elephants killed represents a 42. Elite urban consumers prize elephant meat for cultural considerable proportion of deaths from all causes. There reasons and they are willing to pay higher prices for it than are two main circumstances in which elephants are legally for almost any other kind of meat. The main reason why killed due to human-elephant conflict. The first is ‘problem more elephant meat is not consumed is lack of availability. animal control’ (PAC), which is carried out by the wildlife Although elephant meat has significant economic potential authorities in response to complaints by villagers of crop- for hunters, the commodity is underutilized because of raiding or other elephant depredations. The second is manpower constraints in transport and fear of being self-defence, in which local inhabitants will kill problem detected by the authorities if hunting parties are too large elephants that are threatening their lives and/or property. or remain for too long in one place smoking meat. Meat from legitimate HEC killings does not appear to enter bushmeat trade networks, although research is needed on 43. Since demand for elephant meat exceeds supply, the question. there is great potential for the trade to grow, particularly as other bushmeats become scarcer as a result of over- exploitation propelled by human population growth and lack of protein alternatives. The trade would almost certainly increase if logistical constraints were eased (e.g. roads were built offering easier access and exodus) and/ or security concerns lessened (e.g. ecoguard patrols and road checkpoints decreased, or corruption of law enforcers increased).

Daniel Stiles 15 Recommendations create the demand that economic motivation must supply. Education and public awareness programmes Recommendations for policy and actions to reduce illegal should be increased to create public consensus of elephant killing emerging from this study include: the need to conserve elephants and also to generate stigma associated with buying elephant products. 1. The COMIFAC-CBFP strategy of focusing on defined landscapes and creating land-use zones and natural 7. The international community should sustain its resource management plans should constitute efforts to encourage governments in Central Africa the framework for policies and actions aimed at and elsewhere to practice good governance and conserving elephants. effective rule of law and such efforts should even be intensified. 2. Access, user rights and the responsibility to sustainably manage wildlife resources should be 8. It is crucial to maintain large protected areas in transferred whenever possible to local stakeholders Central Africa for elephant and other biodiversity who have a vested interest in maintaining the conservation. Governments and international resources and who can deliver sustainable solutions donors should consider establishing buffer zones at the local level. Capacity of such empowered local around protected areas in which transportation and communities should be strengthened to ensure communications infrastructure will not be introduced. that they have the ability to exercise these rights A real dilemma is the paradox created by, on the responsibly and with accountability. one hand, the need for economic development to decrease rural populations’ dependence on natural 3. Conservation and sustainable use of wildlife resources for survival and, on the other hand, the resources would be enhanced through the consequences of increased economic activity: incorporation of traditional knowledge and modes of larger populations with increased means to impact leadership into management and monitoring systems. negatively on biodiversity, including elephants. Development should therefore go hand in hand with 4. Commercial hunters are the proximate cause of effective conservation policy and actions. elephant poaching in Central Africa and according to them, they would cease killing elephants if alternative 9. Elephants and other protected species such as great sources of income were available to them. Elephant apes congregate in forest clearings. These localities hunters are often known within their communities and the paths leading to them should receive and to local law enforcement authorities. Special concerted attention by forest ecoguards in protected efforts should be made with these hunters to provide areas and, if located in State forests, forestry education, training and employment as an incentive to concessions or communal lands, buffer zones should cease killing elephants. Concurrently, laws must also be created around them in which no human activities be more strictly enforced to arrest and punish hunters are allowed. to deter illegal elephant killing.

5. Commanditaires (those who order and subsidize 10. In cases where extractive industries operate, such elephant hunts) and middlemen trading in elephant as oil, logging or mining, governments and NGOs meat and ivory are intermediate causes of illegal need to work with the private sector to promote best- elephant killing. Without their participation and often use practices and the establishment of company encouragement in killing elephants and rewarding regulations that promote sustainable forestry hunters, elephant poaching would probably decline management under the Forest Stewardship Council. significantly. The relevant authorities, assisted as may These include prohibiting bushmeat to feed workers be by NGOs (e.g. LAGA, PALF), need to do more and forbidding company vehicles to transport wildlife to identify these middlemen and put a stop to their products. operations by publicizing their activities and taking them to court. 11. National wildlife management agencies (e.g. MINFOF, ICCN) should be strengthened and field officers 6. Consumers that purchase elephant meat in Central should be trained and equipped properly to allow Africa and worked ivory of illegal origin are the them to carry out their duties. Staff should also be ultimate cause of illegal killing of elephants, as they recompensed appropriately and in a timely fashion in

16 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report order to incentivize them, build morale and provide encouragement to carry out their duties.

12. Law enforcement monitoring should be improved within national wildlife management agencies in order to evaluate its effectiveness and take remedial measures where necessary.

13. Resources should be provided by national governments and international donors to permit comprehensive elephant censuses and monitoring programmes to be carried out in cooperation with national wildlife agencies and international organizations such as MIKE, WWF, WCS and the ECOFAC programme.

14. An elephant meat and ivory trade monitoring programme at the site level should be initiated under the auspices of CITES MIKE and in collaboration with the IUCN/SSC AfESG and TRAFFIC.

15. Recommendations regarding the trade in bushmeat made by concerned parties (e.g. IUCN, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, WWF, WCS, CIFOR) all aim for the sustainability of species offtake. Although illegal, the trade in meat and other body products of protected species such as the elephant should receive recognition as a special category that prohibits trade in meat and other parts. Policies and strategies in addition to law enforcement alone should be formulated to address the illegal hunting and product trade of these protected species.

16. Existing legislation in Central African countries should be reviewed and revised to remove ambiguities concerning elephant killing and product trade, and to update recent modifications made by decree by governments in respect of the protected status of the elephant.

Daniel Stiles 17 Introduction

The Congo Basin forest is the second largest tropical forest in the world. (Photo: Dan Stiles)

Background radically over the past few decades with the introduction and spread of military weapons, dramatically increasing From the Mountains of the Moon to the Atlantic Ocean, wild bushmeat offtake (Barnes, 2002; Fa & Brown, 2009). game meat, or bushmeat, has been the most important Lack of good governance in Central African countries has source of protein in the Congo Basin forests of Central exacerbated all of the aforementioned factors to result in Africa for millennia (Wilkie & Carpenter, 1999; Bakarr, et negative impacts on biodiversity in general and mammals al., 2001). Human population density was very low during in particular (Nasi, et al., 2008; Yanggen, et al., 2010). most of this long period, but over the last century, human population has been rapidly increasing with improved A growing body of evidence indicates that Africa is facing health care and better nutrition (Bennett, 2008; World a dangerous resurgence in illegal elephant killing following Bank, 2010a). Cincotta, et al. (2000) warned a decade ago a relative pause of over a decade since 1990 with the that population growth would cause substantial human- commencement of the Convention on International Trade induced environmental changes in biodiversity hotspots, in Endangered Species (CITES) international trade in ivory of which the Congo Basin is one of the most important in moratorium. News reports, announcements by Interpol the world (Myers, et al., 2000; Anon., 2005). Roads are and TRAFFIC, amongst others, report increasing numbers penetrating previously inaccessible forests to prospect of ivory seizures, including some of the largest ever for oil and minerals or to log for timber (Wilkie, et al., recorded (Milliken, et al., 2009). 2000, 2001; Elkan, et al., 2006; Laurance, et al., 2006). These new roads and economic activities attract farmers, News reports to date have focused almost exclusively on hunters and those searching for employment. Agricultural the illegal trade in ivory, implying that this is the primary interventions in the form of cocoa, coffee and oil palm economic driver of elephant poaching. A more veiled issue plantations destroy forest and attract even more people is the trade in elephant bushmeat. Elephant bushmeat is (World Bank, 2011). Hunting methods have changed potentially a major economic bonus which is available to

18 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report actors who may have little access to the proceeds from is far fewer and the value of the acquired ivory almost ivory. negligible.

In addition, the consumption and trade of elephant meat An initial assessment of the 2001-2009 carcass database may reflect underlying human-elephant conflict, with of the CITES-MIKE (Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants) retaliatory killings or ‘authorized’ culls being a source of programme indicates that the trade in elephant meat, meat. In many Central African countries exaggerated especially in the Central African subregion, may be an claims of elephant crop raiding are used as a pretext important factor underlying the illegal killing of elephants for state sanctioned killing and distribution of meat. (CITES, 2010a). The dynamics, scale and impact of the Permissions for the killings, and the meat windfall, are trade in elephant meat are not well understood and more used by local politicians to gain popular support (John information is required to assess the scale of the problem Hart, in litt., 2010). to improve the information in MIKE and the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) and to assist with the While elephant meat may be a by-product of the ivory development of appropriate management solutions. trade, it could also be a primary driver of elephant kills in certain localities and of particular concern for conservation, The IUCN/SSC African Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG) given that elephants with small or no tusks will be targeted. has been charged by MIKE with implementing a project While ivory syndicates aim for large accumulations to investigate the linkages between the elephant meat intended for export, and thus focus on the last remaining trade and larger social and economic dynamics at play, major herds, elephant bushmeat could be attractive and including, but not limited to ivory trade, logging (legal even profitable when the number of elephants to be killed and illegal), mining, infrastructure development, global economic trends, law enforcement at the national and Figure 1. Study areas and MIKE study sites international level, and community forest governance.

Daniel Stiles 19 The project was carried out in four Central African Objectives countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), Republic of Congo (ROC) and Democratic Republic of The overall objective of the study is to enhance knowledge Congo (DRC). MIKE monitoring sites in each of the four of contemporary elephant bushmeat market dynamics, countries were selected as samples of elephant meat and patterns and trends in Central Africa and to determine the other product sources (Figure 1). The country case study impact of elephant meat trade on elephant populations. reports (Randolph & Stiles, 2011; Neale & Stiles, 2011; Within this overall objective are the longer term objectives Latour, 2011; Stiles, 2011) can be found online at http:// outlined below. www.african-elephant.org. A summary has been published as Stiles (in press). Long term objectives To determine: The Central Africa subregion is of particular importance • the types of actors involved in killing elephants for to elephant conservation because one of the two main meat and ivory respectively; variants of the African elephant is confined to the Congo • the methods and work effort of those involved; Basin, which makes up a large part of Central Africa. • the source locations, transport methods and routes Recent work with DNA has proposed that the forest used for trafficking meat and ivory; elephant is a species distinct from the savannah elephant, • the final destination of meat and ivory and socio- and that they diverged between 2.4 and 5.8 million years demographics of the consumers; ago (Murata, et al., 2009; Rohland, et al., 2010; Ishida, et • the commodity chain of meat and ivory respectively al., 2011). This research supports earlier investigations and the social networks involved; that also concluded that African elephants were comprised • the economics of the trade: prices of meat and ivory, of two separate species (Grubb, et al., 2000; Roca, et al., income generated, etc.; 2001), though taxonomic separation at the species level • attitudes and motivation related to killing elephants of has been contested (e.g. Debruyne, 2005). West Africa those involved in the trade: the hunters, transporters/ hosts a type of elephant whose taxonomic status is still middlemen, vendors and consumers; undecided, though Ishida, et al.’s (2011) work grouped the • the relationship and functioning of elephant meat southern West African populations with forest elephants trade within the broader context of bushmeat trade in and the northern West African elephants with savannah general; elephants. Until further genomic studies confirm the • the influence of external factors on killing elephants taxonomic relationships between elephant variants, the and trade in its products, for example, logging (legal forest elephant will be considered a subspecies of the and illegal); mining; infrastructure development; law African elephant and will be referred to as Loxondonta enforcement at the national and international level; africana cyclotis. Forest elephants are particularly community forest governance; and economic trends vulnerable to extinction by over-hunting due to their slow that affect demand; reproduction and behavioural traits (e.g. repeated use of • management solutions to control the illegal killing of forest trails and congregation in clearings) (Blake, et al., elephants for meat. 2007; Fa & Brown, 2009).

The findings of this study also aim to offer contributions The loss of the forest elephant to poaching would have to satisfy elements in CITES Decision 13.11 ‘Bushmeat’, a significant impact on the Congo Basin forest ecology. Decision 14.78 (Rev. CoP15) concerning updating Recent research has demonstrated the crucial importance information relating to the status of elephant conservation of elephants as seed dispersers and in maintaining and the data that MIKE is collecting, and Decision 15.74, the community structure of trees (Blake, et al., 2009; which concerns an evaluation of the need to revise Vanthomme, et al., 2010). Elephants are a keystone CITES Resolution 10.10 (Rev. CoP 15) ‘Trade in Elephant species upon which many other species depend. As well Specimens’. as dispersing seeds, they create clearings in thick forests, which allows many other plant and animal species to thrive. The disappearance of the forest elephant would have devastating consequences on many other species and impact negatively on Congo Basin forests.

20 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Study Sites <50 km from the MIKE site, regional town sites, and one large urban centre site distant from the MIKE site. The The CITES MIKE programme has established a set of objective was to establish the commodity chains and monitoring sites in 30 of the 37 range States of the African transport routes of meat and ivory respectively. elephant and in the 13 range States of the Asian elephant. These sites contain about 40% of all African elephants The study sites in each country were: and 30% of all Asian elephants (CITES, 2010a). These monitoring sites consist of protected areas (national parks or reserves) and on occasion, associated areas in which relatively important elephant subpopulations are found (e.g. Samburu-Laikipia in Kenya). The overall goal of MIKE is to provide information needed for elephant range States to make appropriate management and enforcement decisions and to build institutional capacity within the range States for the long-term management of their elephant populations. More specific objectives within this goal are: I. measuring and recording levels and trends, and changes in levels and trends, of illegal hunting and trade in ivory in elephant range States, and in trade entrepôts; II. assessing whether and to what extent observed trends are related to changes in the listing of elephant populations in the CITES Appendices and/or the re- sumption of legal international trade in ivory; III. establishing an information base to support the making of decisions on appropriate management, protection and enforcement needs; and IV. building capacity in range States.

MIKE sites possess the best existing baseline and trend data relating to elephant killing and causes of death, although the quality and quantity of data vary considerably from site to site. A MIKE site with relatively high quality data, a high density of elephants and reasonably good access and security was selected in each of the four case study countries to represent a sample of a source area for elephant meat and other traded products. In addition, MIKE sites were selected where WWF, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) or the European Union’s (EU) ECOFAC (Conservation et Utilisation Rationnelle des Écosystèmes Forestiers d’Afrique Centrale) conservation programmes were also being carried out, which provided additional data relating to elephants and other relevant variables.

From the source area, roads and human settlements were sampled at varying distances in an attempt to follow the movement of elephant meat and other elephant products. Because of local circumstances to be explained below, the sampling of settlements in which to conduct research was, however, not comparable in each country. The study sites comprise four levels: MIKE source site, trade sites

Daniel Stiles 21 Cameroon There are 16 forest clearings (bai) in Boumba-Bek, with four currently monitored by MINFOF/WWF for large MIKE site –Boumba-Bek National Park (BBNP) mammal activities. There are an estimated 831 plant BBNP is located in the extreme south-east of Cameroon species that measure 10 cm in diameter or more at chest- between latitude 2˚50’ to 2˚95’ north and longitude 14o high level and more than 30 land mammal species (Ekobo, o 1998). The wildlife species include the African forest 80’ to 15 20’ east (Figure 2). It covers a surface area of 2,383km2 and is located within the Boumba and Ngoko elephant (Loxodonta africana cyclotis), forest buffalo Departments of the East Region. The closest regional (Syncerus caffer nanus), leopard (Panthera pardus), towns are Yokadouma, near the border with CAR, and bongo antelope (Tragelaphus euryceros), forest duikers (Cephalophus spp.), primates (Gorilla g. gorilla, Pan Moloundou, on the border with ROC. WWF collaborates troglodytes, Cercopithecus spp., Colobus spp. etc.), with the Cameroon Ministry of Forests and Fauna reptiles (Crocodilus spp., Kinixys spp., Bitis gabonica (MINFOF) to manage BBNP under the WWF-TRIDOM (Tri and Dendroaspsis viridis), and rodents (grasscutters and Dja-Odzala-Minkebe) project. porcupines) (Ekobo, 1998).

The temperature varies between 23˚C and 25˚C with an Estimates for elephant population size within the park average temperature of 24˚C. Annual rainfall averages range from 318± in 2004 (Blake, 2005) to 800-1,000 in 1500 mm per year and relative humidity varies between 60 2009 (Nzooh, 2009a), although these estimates are not and 90%. The Dja Reserve system lies to the east of Nki precise and error limits are so large that comparisons National Park, which flanks Boumba-Bek National Park are tenuous. Improved accuracy in elephant population (BBNP). Lobéké National Park lies to the east of BBNP. estimations, more consistent elephant monitoring, the BBNP contains semi-deciduous forest (98%) and Raphia inception of park patrolling and fluctuating population due wetlands (2%) (Letouzey, 1985). to elephant movements contribute to different estimates. There are also large seasonal differences. Ekobo (1995), Figure 2. Boumba Bek National Park and study area in using dung density counts along transects, found that south-east Cameroon. in Lobéké NP, the long dry season elephant population

22 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Oboul bai in BBNP, which is monitored by MINFOF the Sports Hunting Zone (ZIC) 38 in FMU 10_015; and (Photo: WWF) finally to the east, the Community Hunting Zones Nos. 07, 08 and 09. ZIC 38 is a hunting block particularly active with estimate was 4,548, while in the short rainy and dry foreign sports hunters. seasons it was 3,719 and 1,190 in the long rainy season (all ± 57%).1 Elephants migrate seasonally east into the Human Settlements Dzanga-Sangha Complex area of CAR and back again. Villages near MIKE site – The villages and towns in Satellite tracking indicates that elephants do not cross the which markets were visited and informants interviewed Moloundou-Yokadouma road (Mike Loomis, in litt., 17 June were located east of BBNP on the north-south Provincial 2011); thus elephant subpopulations from BBNP-Nki NP do Route 4 between Yokadouma and Moloundou, and on the not mix with those of Lobéké NP. western side of BBNP on the road from Lomié to Abong Mbang. Approximately 33,200 people live around BBNP. The population is comprised of indigenous Baka (one of • Ngato village, lying 40 km south on the P4 from several Pygmy forest groups in Central Africa) and Bantus Yokadouma, is the headquarters for BBNP and (Kounabembe, Bangando, Bakwele, Mbomam, Essel, an important transit point for elephant hunters and Mbimo, Mpong-Mpong). The non-local population of traders. WWF and MINFOF staff are based here. It is logging company workers live in logging towns. Muslim located on the north-east edge of BBNP. merchants from northern Cameroon, neighbouring • Logoué and Banana are small villages south-east of countries and Mauritania also inhabit the towns of the BBNP near Moloundou inhabited mainly by Baka. region. • Djaposten, Polido’o and Nomedjo are villages inhabited by both Baka and Bantu located west of The park is buffered by several hunting areas: to the north, BBNP, north of Lomié. the Zone d’Intérêt Cynégétique à Gestion Communautaire • Lomié is a small town about 90 km west of BBNP. (ZICGC) or Community Hunting Zone No. 14, located in Forestry Management Unit (FMU) 10_018; to the south, Regional towns • Yokadouma (population 13,287) is an important 1 Nzooh (2009b), also based on dung density counts, reported Lobéké NP to logging town in the East Province of Cameroon and have 2,091 elephants in 2002, 2,445 in 2006 and 1,715 in 2009, but with no information on the season of the counts, the estimates are of limited value in it is a transit point for travellers from neighbouring determining a trend. CAR and ROC, being on the P4 linking Moloundou

Daniel Stiles 23 on the ROC border with National Route 10 that Central African Republic leads to Yaoundé. It is located in the south-east, near the border with CAR and is the closest town MIKE site – Dzanga-Sangha Complex (DSC) to the Boumba-Bek headquarters and therefore a The Dzanga-Sangha Complex (DSC) is a 4,589 km2 block central transit and trading point for elephant products of dense tropical forest located in the south-west of CAR extracted from the park. Local Bantu (Mpo, Mpoman), (Figure 3). The complex is split into three management Baka and numerous immigrant tribes, including units: the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, with two sectors: Hausa from northern Cameroon and West Africa, Dzanga (495 km2) and Ndoki (727 km2), and the Dzanga- make up the population. Sangha Special Reserve (3,359 km2). The DSC borders the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in ROC and the Lobéké • Moloundou is the principle town of the Moloundou National Park in Cameroon; together they form the Tri- District in the Boumba and Ngoko Department. The National Sangha (TNS) conservation zone. All forms Moloundou District population is 22,882. Moloundou of exploitation are strictly prohibited in the parks, while town’s population was estimated at 3,200 (Defo, subsistence hunting is allowed in the special reserve and 2007), probably a low estimate. The town lies there are sports hunting blocks in the complex. approximately 200 km south of Yokadouma and 60 km south of BBNP, on the border with ROC. The Dja The DSC and its management entity, the Dzanga-Sangha River flows from the Dja Reserve and through Nki Project (DSP), were formed on 29 December 1990 by the NP. It then forms the border of Cameroon, where it is CAR government (Remis & Kpanou, 2010). The DSP is known as the Ngoko River, to empty into the Sangha run by government appointed nationals under the Ministry River at Ouesso, ROC. The Dja River is a major of Water, Forests, Hunting and Fisheries (MWFHF) and transport route used for ivory, meat and other wildlife advised by representatives from WWF, and until recently, products. The population is comprised of Bantu and the German technical development agency (GTZ). Funding indigenous Baka from Cameroon and neighbouring is provided by donor agencies, now primarily WWF. countries, including a substantial non-local Bantu population of logging employees. This is an important The headquarters for the DSC is located just outside of trading and launching point for elephant poachers. the town of Bayanga, the largest town in the region with an estimated population of over 4,000 people. Originally Large urban centre Bayanga was a small fishing village, but after the arrival • Yaoundé is the capital of Cameroon and the second of a logging company and a road in the 1970s, the town largest city, after Douala, with an estimated population experienced a rapid influx of people, putting increased of 1.3 million (GeoNames, 2010). Yaoundé reflects pressure on the park. the cultural and linguistic diversity of Cameroon with five major ethnic groups represented in and The site lies within the north-west Congolian lowland forest around the city (the Beti clan of the Ewondo tribe ecoregion. The entire region drains first to the Sangha predominates). It is on the only train line in the River, the second largest river in the country, and then into country and is a central transit and trading point the Congo River. The region is covered predominantly by for agricultural, wild meat, timber and non-timber dense tropical forest. Forest types include Gilbertiodendron products from both forested and savannah zones. dewevrei forests, Guibourtia demeusii forests, dense forest Several bushmeat markets are located there. on marshy soil, dense forest on well-drained soil and secondary and depleted forests. Savannah is found in the north-east of the region. Forest clearings known as bais, characterized by soils with rich mineral content and an active water source, are found throughout the forest.

The region supports a rich assemblage of wildlife. Ungulates include the African forest elephant (Loxodonta africana cyclotis), forest buffalo (Syncerus caffer nanus), bongo (Tragelaphus euryceros), sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekei), seven species of duiker (Cephalophus spp.) and two species of pig (Potamochoerus porcus and Hylochoerus meinertzhageni) (Fay, et al., 1990; Klaus-

24 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Hugi, et al., 2000). There are over 15 primate species such Figure 3. The Dzanga-Sangha Complex (DSC) and as the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), the near-endemic study area in south-west CAR sun-tailed monkey (Cercopithecus solatus) and the black colobus monkey (Colobus satanas) (Noss, 1995). The park made of sticks and leaves. They are, however, becoming also supports large populations of western lowland gorilla increasingly sedentary in roadside villages and active in (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). The area is also thought to host 379 cultivating fields (Bahuchet, 1992; Sarano, 1998). species of birds of 66 different families (Green & Carroll, 1991). Since the mid-1980s, the human population of the DSC has fluctuated with migrants attracted by forest resources, Near the DSC, human populations are concentrated in diamonds and employment in logging or conservation, but eight villages as well as in many informal camps located reached a high in 2004 of 10,000 (Remis & Kpanou, 2010). along a road that traverses the complex north-south. In 2005, Remis & Kpanou (2010) reported finding several Generally speaking, ethnic groups are divided into two hundred artisanal diamond miners and bushmeat hunters primary groups, the Pygmy BaAka and the non-Aka. Non- in the communal area adjacent to the DSC. Aka residents reside in permanent settlements with multi- roomed houses constructed from bamboo or wood and There has been extensive mammal census work in the exhibit a strong reliance on subsistence agriculture. The area focused on the African forest elephant. Andrea BaAka ethnic group resides in and around the forests of Turkalo has spent over two decades conducting one of the southern CAR and northern ROC (Bahuchet, 1992). The longest continuous studies of elephant social organization BaAka share a single Bantu language and are culturally and behaviour (Turkalo & Fay, 2001; WCS, 2010). Of distinct from other Pygmy groups (e.g. the Baka of particular importance are the forest clearings (bais), which Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of Congo, and the draw in large number of forest elephants and other wildlife. Mbuti and Efe of the Democratic Republic of Congo). The During Turkalo’s work, over 3,000 individual elephants BaAka are traditionally semi-nomadic, rely heavily on were identified in a single bai, the Dzanga Bai. forest resources for subsistence, and live in round houses Early elephant surveys in DSC (Carroll, 1986; Carroll,

Daniel Stiles 25 Dzanga bai in the Dzanga-Sangha Complex (Photo: forest zone. Nola is the capital of the Sangha-Mbaéré Andrea Turkalo) Préfecture and has an estimated population of 37,000 (Defo, 2007). Nola lies on the Sangha River, 104 1988; Fay & Agnagna, 1991) provided population km to the north of DSC. A lively market in the town estimates using elephant dung density. More recently, a centre acts as a focal point for bushmeat sales and survey team consisting of WWF-CAR technicians, advised distribution. by a WCS/MIKE team, completed an inventory of elephant dung, ape nests, and other ecological and human signs in • Beya is a small town located at the junction of the Dzanga-Sangha Complex over a period of 10 months roads running to ROC and north to Nola. Beya is (August 2003 - May 2004) (Blake, 2005). an important transfer point for bushmeat and other products moving out of the forest region and DSC The studies found a decline in average elephant dung as well as from ROC to the larger towns of Nola and density in DSC from 1986 to 2004, suggesting an Berberati. elephant population drop, particularly in 2004. The elephant population estimates suggested a decline from • Libongo and Socambo villages in the East Region of approximately 1,750 in 1993 to 869 in 2004, although Cameroon were identified by DSC staff based at the error limits were large. Additionally, while conducting the park headquarters in Bayanga; they are located along 2003-2004 survey, the team found 11 elephant carcasses, the Sangha River near the border of Lobéké National eight of which were killed for ivory, meat or both and one Park and CAR. These settlements are accumulations juvenile was killed solely for meat (Blake, 2005). All of the of people from different ethnic backgrounds who are carcasses with one exception were found near or within working for, or searching for jobs with, nearby logging the Dzanga sector. Blake (2005) concluded that the DSC companies, notably the Italian logging company elephant population was under serious threat by illegal Société d’Exploitation Forestière et Agricole du poaching as well as loss of available range. Unfortunately, Cameroun. The immigrants are important conduits no comprehensive surveys of the area have been for elephant and other bushmeat products harvested completed recently. in CAR. In addition, many known poachers currently reside in these towns. Villages near the MIKE site • Nola was identified during a stakeholder meeting with DSC staff as one of the most important source points for bushmeat near DSC and the surrounding

26 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Regional Town western boundary of the NP follows a secondary road • Berberati was chosen because it is a major centre of connecting Ebana to Mbomo, which continues to Oloba on bushmeat and ivory trade. Berberati is located 220 the Gabon border. From Mbomo to Oloba, the road is no km north of Bayanga and the DSC. It is the capital longer suitable for motor vehicles. The recent renovation of the Mambéré-Kadéï Préfecture and is the third of the RN 2 makes access to the OKNP area easier and largest city in CAR with a population of 76,918 (2003 makes it possible to reach Ouesso from Brazzaville in one census). There are a total of six established markets day. (Central, Poto Poto, Baba Salao, Sambanda, Rosine, and Selon-moyen) that support at least 49 bushmeat South of the OKNP, the Mbomo District, along with the stalls. Berberati is situated 90 km from the border with whole of forested northern ROC, has a low population Cameroon along a major transportation route where density of approximately 0.5 inhabitants/km2. The goods, notably timber, are transported to Cameroon. population has grown from 4,541 in the 1987 national census to 7,163 in 2010. The population of Cuvette- Large urban centre Ouest in total was listed at 72,999 in 2010 (ROC National • Bangui is the capital and principal city of CAR. In Census, 2010). Four ethnic groups are represented: the 2007 the population of Bangui was approximately Mboko, the Kota, the Mongom and the Bakola. They are 800,000 inhabitants (Fargeot, 2008). Although it is slash and burn farmers and hunters, except the Bakola 526 km from DSC, it represents the centre for market Pygmies, who are hunter-gatherers. commerce and has a consumer demand for natural resource products from all over the country. A number The whole northern ROC region lies in the Guineo- of active bushmeat markets can be found in Bangui, Congolian/Soudanian transition area (Dowsett-Lemaire, most notably Market PK 12, the largest bushmeat 1995a). The semi-deciduous forests of the OKNP are market in CAR (Fargeot, 2008). Although elephant typical of the most widespread of the Guineo-Congolian bushmeat from around the DSC currently does not forest (mixed moist semi-evergreen Guineo-Congolian appear to be transported to Bangui, it was deemed rainforest), which stretch from south-east Cameroon and useful to investigate the demand for the commodity eastern Gabon and include the whole of the Congo Basin. there for future reference and to collect data on The OKNP is a mixture of several relatively heterogeneous elephant meat in a large urban setting. vegetation types. To the north is tropical moist forest, while to the south lies a zone of forest-savannah mosaic with gallery forests running along watercourses. Along Republic of Congo the rivers are inundated forests with extensive swamp forests associated with the Mambili River floodplain. These MIKE site – Odzala-KoUkoua National Park inundated areas are also found to the north-west where (OKNP) swamps and seasonally flooded forests are the dominant The OKNP (0°09’-1°35’N, 14°18’-15°21’E) spans two vegetation types (Maisels, 1996). The OKNP contains wide provinces: Sangha and La Cuvette Ouest (West Basin) areas of Marantaceae forest which are characterized by (Figure 4). Created in 1935 with a surface area of 2,850 sparse tree cover and a dense layer of understory herbs in 2 2 km , the park was extended to 13,545 km in 2001, being the families of Marantaceae and Zingiberaceae. The OKNP by far the largest national park in ROC and the third is also characterized by the presence of over 100 forest largest NP in Central Africa, after Salonga and Okapi in clearings ranging in size from less than 0.5 ha to some DRC. over 10 ha. These bais, rich in minerals, are dominated by herbs in the families of Graminae and Cyperaceae The northern boundary of the OKNP is delimited by the and attract high densities of large mammals, particularly main road connecting two district towns, Mokeko (25 elephants and gorillas. Forest paths have been created km south of Ouesso) and Sembé, along which there and used repeatedly by elephants, particularly in the are 13 villages, eight of them with a population of over Marantaceae forests (Vanleeuwe & Gautier-Hion, 1998). 100 inhabitants (Victor Mbolo, WWF, pers. comm., 2010). The eastern border goes south towards Etoumbi The OKNP has an interesting mix of true forest species running alongside the national road (RN) 2 for about 55 and savannah species: forest elephant, forest buffalo, km from Mokouangonda to Epouma (seven villages). At hippopotamus, bongo, sitatunga, bushbuck, Bates pygmy Mokouangonda, the RN 2 diverges to the north-east away antelope, eight species of duiker (including Grimms’ from the OKNP, rendering the north-eastern boundary duiker and Ogilbys’ duiker), giant forest hog, red river hog, of the OKNP inaccessible by motor vehicles. The south- western lowland gorilla, chimpanzee, eight species of

Daniel Stiles 27 Figure 4. Location of Odzala-Koukoua National Park and study sites in ROC monkey, leopard, golden cat and spotted hyena. The bird Central Africa. Elephants are found in large part far from community is diverse, with around 435 species of both human activity along the river valleys in the central part savannah and forest habitats (Dowsett-Lemaire, 1995b). of the park. In 2008, Malonga, et al. (2009) estimated an Of the larger reptiles, two crocodile species are known to elephant density in OKNP of 1.6 per km2, which calculates be in the OKNP, with the presence of the Nile crocodile still to approximately 21,760±7,398 elephants. According to an open question (Maisels, 1996). Blake (2006), the estimated forest elephant density in OKNP in 2005 was 1.0 km2, and a total population estimate Research and monitoring in the OKNP over the last two therefore of 13,545 ±3,252 individuals. There appears to decades has demonstrated that the park contains an have been an increase in elephant numbers inside OKNP extraordinary abundance of forest elephants (Fay and between 2005 and 2008. Agnagna, 1991; Maisels, 1996; Vanleeuwe & Gautier- Hion, 1998; Querouil et al., 1999; Blake, 2006). Due to an Since 1992, ECOFAC has carried out a conservation and excellent habitat with a profusion of bais and a high degree development programme in the OKNP collecting data on of isolation in the interior of the park, the OKNP contains elephant poaching and ivory trade (Nishihara, 2003). The very high densities of elephants compared to other sites in programme closed down in June, 2010, at the beginning

28 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report A poacher seized by ecoguards in northern ROC • Zoulaboth is on the same road to the north-east of (Photo: C. Makoumbou, WCS) OKNP. of field work for this project. WWF-TRIDOM is based in Regional towns Sembe to the north of OKNP and coordinates its work with • Ouesso is the fifth largest town in ROC with Boumba-Bek in Cameroon. approximately 28,000 inhabitants. It is located about 90 km from the north-east corner of OKNP and is Villages near the MIKE site near the borders of both Cameroon and CAR. Ouesso • Mbomo, Diba and Lisanga are on the south-western is an active centre for bushmeat and ivory trade. edge of OKNP where many specialized elephant hunters reside along the RN 2 road. Mbomo is the • Oyo and Mossaka on the Congo River, from which Mbomo District administrative centre and former elephant products are shipped to Brazzaville. headquarters for the ECOFAC programme. Large urban centres • Attention (54 km SW of Ouesso) is a village on the national road linked by a bush track to a big hunting • Pointe-Noire is the second largest city in ROC with a and fishing camp at Lengoué. population of about 670,000; it is the main port and commercial centre of the country, with oil and fishing • Liouesso (80 km SW of Ouesso) is close to the as the main economic activities. It is linked by rail with Lengoué River that is used to transport fish and Kola to the north, near the Conkouati National Park bushmeat, including elephant meat. There are about (source of bushmeat), and to Brazzaville almost 400 72 fishing camps along the river (Auzel, 2008) and km to the east. hunting camps deeper in the forest. Several clearings frequented by elephants exist in this area. • Brazzaville, capital of the ROC, with a population of about 1.1 million, has several bushmeat markets. • Mokouangonda (117 km SW from Ouesso) is the last collection point for traders coming from Ouesso.

• Miélékouka is north of OKNP on the Sembe-Ouesso road.

Daniel Stiles 29 Democratic Republic of Congo to 1000 m, with a few rock inselbergs rising to 1200 m that provide microhabitats for a few particular species (e.g. rock hyrax and cane rat). Rainfall varies between 1600 MIKE site – Okapi Faunal Reserve (OFR) to 2000 mm annually. The most important feature that The OFR (coordinates 1°00’-2°42’N and 28°02’- 29°08’E) attracts elephants and other large herbivores are clearings was established in 1992 by Ministerial Decree no. 045/ called edo (bai in the western Congo Basin). CM/ECN/92 of 2 May (Figure 5). In 1996 the reserve was made a World Heritage Site and in 1997, because of Elephants have created small clearings in swampy areas armed conflict in the area, it was inscribed on the list of for bathing or by digging for minerals, while four larger World Heritage in Danger sites, along with four other World clearings of high importance have existed for centuries. Heritage sites in eastern DRC (Balongelwa, 2008). It is in The larger edos measure about 1.5 ha each in area and the Orientale Province of DRC, with the provincial capital two of them are salt licks. These clearings tend to draw of Kisangani about 450 km to the south-west. poachers because large game animals are attracted to them. The OFR covers 13,726 km2, although if a section yet to be confirmed by the government in the south-west There are four main forest types in OFR: swamp forest, corner is included, the area measures 14,139 km2 (Hart, mixed forest, Mbau forest, and secondary forest. Swamp et al., 2008). The OFR is one of the most biodiversity forest occurs in narrow strips along drainage channels rich protected areas in the Congo Basin and comprises throughout the reserve. Mixed forest typically is tall with about 22% of the Ituri Forest. The reserve is located in the a crown height of 30-40 m, a heterogeneous canopy with basins of the Ituri and Nepoko rivers, with their tributaries, frequent emergent trees with an open understory and the Epulu and Ngayu rivers. It varies in altitude from 700 dense sub-canopy. Mbau forest is 90% dominated by Figure 5. Location of the Okapi Faunal Reserve Gilbertiodendron dewevrei, which often occurs in pure (OFR) and study sites in the DRC stands. Tree height is typically 30-40m with a dense even

30 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report canopy. Secondary forest occurs in areas that have been near agricultural settlements located along roads. cultivated. The Pygmies’ main game species are small ungulates and primates; they do not traditionally hunt elephants There are 52 mammal species including the okapi (Okapia (Hart & Hart, 1986; Bailey & Peacock, 1988). When not johnstoni), endemic to the north-eastern DRC. The hunting, they gather insects, fungi, fruits, seeds, plants and number of elephants in the forest was estimated in 1995 honey and they excel in the use and identification of wild at about 7,375 (Blanc, et al., 2003), but they have been plants. Most of the cultivators in the region are Bantu, the heavily poached for ivory since then. The most recent dominant ethnic family that includes Lese, Bila, Mamvu, survey estimates that there are about 3,500 elephants Bira, Ndaka, and Budu. Long-standing economic and left in the reserve (Hart, et al., 2008). Other species cultural ties exist between the Pygmies and traditional include the forest buffalo (Syncerus caffer nanus), bongo forest farmers, with the Pygmies exchanging game and antelope (Tragelaphus euryceros), Sitatunga antelope honey for cultivated starch foods to balance their diet. (T. spekei), endemic water chevrotain (Hyemoschus More recently, Pygmies exchange forest products to obtain aquaticus), African golden cat (Felis aurata), giant forest tobacco and alcohol as well. Because the forest habitat genet (Genetta victoria), the endemic aquatic genet offers little grazing land, there are very few livestock, (Osbornictis piscivora), leopard (Panthera pardus), giant except for goats, which are too few to offer a regular ground pangolin (Manis gigantean), aardvark (orycteropus supply of protein to the human population (Anon., 2009a). afer), pygmy antelope (Neotragus batesii), bush pig (Potamochoerus porcus), giant forest hog (Hylochoerus Until 2000, there were few permanent settlements in the meinertzhageni) and great cane rat (Thryonomys forest, mostly along the roads, with some gold mining swinderianus). in the interior. The human population was relatively low, estimated in 1990 at 15,600 people and decreasing The Ituri Forest has one of the highest numbers of duiker owing to the decay of the road system. But since the species in Africa including blue duiker (Cephalophus disturbances in North Kivu, urban Bantu immigrant and monticola), black-fronted duiker (C. nigrifrons), white- Nande cultivators are increasingly encroaching on the bellied duiker (C. leucogaster), Peter’s duiker (C. forest from the south-east. In 1996 a civil war erupted that callipygus), Bay duiker (C. dorsalis), and yellow-backed evolved into a general state of armed conflict involving the duiker (C. sylvicultor). Thirteen primate species have armies of the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda and a plethora been observed, the largest number known for an African of heavily armed militias. In 2000 and 2001, due to a brief forest, including red colobus (Colobus badius), Angolan ten-fold increase in the world price of coltan, there was black and white colobus (C. angolensis), Abyssinian black an inrush of 4,000 coltan miners needing meat. With the and white colobus (C. guereza), several guenon species accompanying Rwandan Interahamwe and Congolese (Cercopithecus ssp.), crested mangabey (C. galeritus), Mai-Mai armed militias, they wiped out the animals around l’Houest’s monkey (C. l’houesti), anubis baboon (Papio their camps, threatening the Mbuti and Efe Pygmy way of Anubis) and abundant chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Also present are Zaire clawless otter (Aonyx congica), brush-tailed porcupines (Atherurus africanus), black- legged mongoose (Bdeogale nigripes), black mongoose (Crossarchus alexandri), and marsh mongoose (Atilax paludinosus). Two crocodiles are found: the African slender-snouted crocodile (Crocodylus cataphactus), and the African dwarf crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis). The abundant and diverse wildlife provides a rich source of bushmeat to the local population.

Hunter-gatherers and shifting cultivators have occupied the margins of the Ituri Forest for centuries. The present populations derive from Nilotic and Bantu migrations and include the indigenous Efe and Mbuti Pygmies, who number about 30,000. Pygmies follow a semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle, depending on wild game and fish caught with traditional fibre nets or archery, but some Mbuti Pygmies hunt small game with nets in the Ituri groups today are settling into semi-permanent villages Forest. (Photo: Dan Stiles)

Daniel Stiles 31 life. Between 2002 and 2004, the national police and local Regional town militias set up camps in the OFR and hired poachers to • Bafwasende is the administrative centre of kill elephants for their ivory (Human Rights Watch, 2005; Bafwasende Territory, the largest in the DRC, in Anon., 2009a). These militias were cleared out of the OFR Tshopo District. It is located about 100 km west of in 2005 by a joint operation of the DRC national army and OFR on the RN 4. the Institute in Congo for Conservation of Nature or Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN), and Large urban centre by 2006 elephant poaching had decreased dramatically Kisangani is the third largest city in the DRC (ca. 650,000 (Balongelwa, 2008; Hart, et al., 2008), even though OFR inhabitants) and is the capital of Orientale Province located still has the highest proportion of illegally killed elephants about 450 km south-west of the OFR on the RN 4. It is of any MIKE monitoring site in Africa (CITES, 2010a). located about 2,000 km from the mouth of the Congo River and 1,730 km from Kinshasa, the DRC capital, by Due to chronic political instability to the south and river. It is the farthest navigable point upstream and there east of the OFR there continues to be a steady influx is a port that is used for shipping timber and other goods of immigrants attracted by mineral resources such as downstream. The city is an important commercial hub gold, diamonds, coltan and cassiterite (tin) and organic for river and land transportation and a major marketing resources comprised of timber, ivory and bushmeat. There and distribution centre for the north-eastern part of the is also a 52,000 ha forestry concession to the south-east of country. There are at least seven markets in the city where the reserve run by Enzymes Refiners Association (ENRA) bushmeat is sold. that produces from 5,000 to 7,000 m3 of cut timber a year (Anon., 2009a). Much more cut timber is produced illegally from artisanal sawmills in the forests, which is smuggled out in containers carried on trucks, either to Uganda and Kenya or to Kisangani.

There used to be coffee plantations in the area, but all commercial agriculture has collapsed since the conflict began, along with the road system. The only ‘good’ road is the unpaved RN 4, rehabilitated in 2005 by the World Bank (Anon., 2009a), which bisects the OFR east-west running from Bunia on the Uganda border to Kisangani.

Villages near the MIKE site • Mambasa is the administrative centre of Mambasa Territory in Ituri District and the base for a brigade of the Force Armée de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC), the national army. It is located a few kilometres east of the OFR at the crossroads of the The Kisangani central market where large quantities RN 4 and the north-south road that runs along the of bushmeat are sold (Photo: Dan Stiles) eastern edge of the OFR and south to Beni, capital of North Kivu Province.

• Nduye is a village about 50 km north of Mambasa situated on the Epulu River, which runs through the OFR.

• Bandisende is a village on the RN 4 east of Mambasa in the OFR.

• Nia-Nia is a small town and Bafwakobi is a village located a few kilometres west of the OFR on the RN 4.

32 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Summary of Previous Activities US$ 3.33/kg for vendors in the Ouesso, ROC market. Martin & Stiles (2000) found in an ivory survey in Central on Bushmeat and Ivory Africa in 1999 that there was, ‘…strong evidence that some elephant populations are being killed primarily for their meat. Of course, the tusks are removed for eventual sale, Yanggen, et al. (2010) presents an excellent summary of but the bushmeat trade largely drives these hunters. The the type of work that has been carried out in and around elephant meat is dried, smoked, salted or kept fresh and the four MIKE study sites within the larger context of the then transported to the town and city markets within the Central African Regional Programme for the Environment country and to neighbouring ones.’ (CARPE). TRAFFIC (2002, 2004), based largely on the 1999 ivory Cameroon survey conducted by Martin & Stiles (2000), stated This study drew on ten bushmeat studies carried out in that Cameroon had the largest unregulated domestic Cameroon since 1996 (Njiforti, 1996; Wilkie & Carpenter, ivory market in Central Africa and was an important 1999a; Ayeni, et al., 2001a; Ayeni, et al., 2001b; Bahuchet illicit international ivory trade centre. As a result and & Ioveva-Baillon, 1999; Fa, et al. 2006; Fa, et al. 2003; following a draft Action Plan for the Control of the Trade Willcox & Nambu, 2007; Abugiche, 2008; Tieguhong & in African Elephant Ivory adopted at the 13th meeting of Zwolinski, 2009; Wright & Priston, 2010), and on three the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CITES, 2004), recent studies on the extent of the bushmeat trade and its Cameroon began a programme to stem the trade in illegal relationship to the forestry industry (Madzou & Ebanega, ivory and wildlife products. With the support of the Last 2004; Makazi, 2004; Tieghuong & Zwolinski, 2009). Great Ape Organization (LAGA), a wildlife law enforcement Unpublished reports from WWF and MINFOF, and MIKE NGO, the government began to stem this illegal trade. data from 2002 to 2010 were also reviewed. Since its inception in 2003 through August 2010, LAGA has instigated 198 arrests for rare wildlife trafficking, including Seven of these studies ranked the most hunted and over 5 tonnes of ivory seizures, the arrest of a logging marketed species (in numbers of animals and/or quantity company manager and seizures of bushmeat, parrot, lion of biomass) for the specific geographical areas under and great ape traffickers. Several elephant meat and ivory investigation. These studies are broadly representative traffickers have been arrested and prosecuted (LAGA, of different lowland humid forest zones of Cameroon. 2009, 2010). According to the 1994 Cameroonian law, protected species (Class A and B, see definitions below) account MINFOF conducts monitoring within PAs with its partner for 42% of the animals most hunted. Though many of the organization, the WWF. WWF has been working in the studies were not located in south-east Cameroon per se, area since the mid 1990s in collaboration with CARPE, basic habitat, economic and social conditions are similar a long-term initiative launched by the United States throughout the forested part of the country; thus the Agency for International Development (USAID) to data are relevant to this study. A few studies in Yaoundé address biodiversity loss and deforestation in the Congo investigated the sources and sale points of wild meat Basin. BBNP is part of the WWF-TRIDOM landscape, a (Bahuchet & Ioveva-Baillon, 1998; Edderai & Dame, 2006; collaborative conservation effort between Gabon, Congo Randolph, unpublished). Nchanji (2005) studied weapons and Cameroon, covering seven PAs in the three countries. and hunting methods used to poach elephants in south- The landscape includes the Dja National Reserve and west Cameroon. Boumba-Bek and Nki NPs in Cameroon.

Only one of these studies presented data specifically on WWF has initiated a hunter informant programme, in which elephant meat. Makazi (2004) investigated the bushmeat they establish rapport with community members across market in Socambo on the Cameroon-CAR border not far the landscape to act as informants on illegal wildlife and also from the ROC border. Amongst the meat he found for forestry activities. Hunter informants are sometimes part of sale were one gorilla carcass, one chimpanzee carcass hunting parties and inform on other members and locations and 60 pieces (approximately 180 kg) of forest elephant of hunts, which can lead to seizure of products, fining, meat. The average approximate sale price of elephant arrests and/or imprisonment. Other informants provide meat was reported to be US$ 1.33/kg for hunters in information on illegal sales and trading of products. Socambo, US$ 1.67/kg for middlemen in Socambo and

Daniel Stiles 33 Operational since July 2007, the Lutte Anti-Braconnage of poor people purchased elephant meat. Elephant meat (LAB), or Anti-Poaching Combat programme organized (along with hippo meat) earned the highest profit of any by MINFOF and WWF, has conducted raids to address bushmeat all along the commodity chain from hunter poaching and illegal timber-cutting operations within the to retail vendor. She only found one elephant hunter in south-east region. Their teams combine national police Berberati, linked to a local superior official in what is now and the Battalion d’Intervention Rapide (Rapid Intervention the MWFHF. Battalion or BIR), a law enforcement branch responsible for protecting national security through activities such as Fargeot (2008) monitored the most important bushmeat illegal weapon seizure campaigns. They target places market in Bangui (PK 12) from 2005 to 2008. Using a known for illegal forestry and hunting activities. conversion ratio of 1 kg of smoked meat equalling 2.7 kg of fresh meat, he estimated that 59.5 tonnes of fresh The MIKE programme has been monitoring elephant elephant meat was sold during the period, about 1.5 % of deaths in the BBNP since 2002 (CITES, 2010a). In the the bushmeat total. Presumably, therefore, he observed 22 MIKE database for south-east Cameroon from 2002 to tonnes of smoked elephant meat. The average price was 2009, 48 elephant carcasses were documented for the US$ 12.65/kg, the highest price by far of any meat being Boumba-Bek area. Twenty one of these (43.8%) were sold (the mean of all bushmeats was US$ 5.50/kg). He deemed to have been killed illegally. MIKE representatives assumed the high price was due to elites wishing to show stated that a portion of the data was lost when there was off their wealth, rather than to a demand exceeding supply. a computer system failure (Luhunu, pers. comm., 2010). Therefore, these data do not present a complete picture The DSP has been monitoring biodiversity and managing of elephant kills and mortality in the region. Ivory, meat, the DSC since 1990. They have carried out a number of sports hunting, natural death or problem elephant control elephant population surveys since 2003 in cooperation with were all listed as motives or causes for elephant deaths. MIKE (Bokoto de Semboli, 2004, 2005, 2007), which has Given the small sample size, it is not possible to articulate been conducting the monitoring of elephant mortality in the a baseline understanding of the temporal trends and DSC since 2005 (CITES, 2010a). motives in elephant kills. In addition, studies have also been carried out to CAR manage sports hunting and bushmeat hunting by local A number of bushmeat market studies have been or are populations in an attempt to rationalize the two and to currently being carried out in CAR (Rieu, 2004, 2005; achieve sustainable game offtake and optimize economic Rieu, et al., 2007; Fargeot, 2003, 2004, 2008; Daspit, returns from hunting wildlife (Roulet & Mamang-Kanga, unpublished; Hodgkinson, 2009; and Lombard, pers. 2008; Fargeot & Castel, 2009). Remis & Kpanou (2010) comm., 2010). These studies have focused on the actors examined the ecological impacts of human activities on involved in bushmeat source points, the supply chain, and the key ungulates that are most often hunted in the DSC. consumer demand of bushmeat. The elephant was one of them. They found that elephants avoided human activity areas, supporting the findings Rieu (2004, 2005) found that smoked elephant meat of other studies (e.g. Blake, et al., 2007), and that they was transported to Berberati markets by foot in chunks were most vulnerable to hunting in the integrally protected weighing 3-5 kg on average. In six markets over a period sectors far from human settlements. of six weeks, she weighed three elephant trunks for sale along with 12 elephant meat pieces averaging 5.2 kg each ECOFAC has carried out elephant surveys and anti- and 19 pieces averaging 942 g each. She did not report poaching activities in northern CAR since the early 1990s how much elephant meat she actually found, but said that (Delvingt & Tello, 2004; Bouché, 2010). Chardonnet & it and hippo together accounted for 5% of all bushmeat Boulet (2008) reported on elephant poaching activities in sold. The smoked meat sold for an overall average price the Sangba evaluation zone, located between Bamingui- of approximately US$ 4.83/kg and was amongst the most Bangoran and Manovo-Gounda-Saint-Floris NPs just south expensive bushmeats sold in Berberati. The high price of Ndélé. Based on carcass counts, they estimated that was linked to the danger in hunting elephants and the 553 elephants were poached between January and May fact that it was a protected species. She concluded that (the dry season) 2007, mainly by Sudanese and Chadian elephant meat was in high demand and that this was poachers who took the ivory and left the meat for the local so because it was more often bought by wealthy elites population. The Sangba zone makes up about 30% of the because of a cultural belief that associated the elephant area of northern CAR, but since elephants concentrate with concepts of strength and virility. She found that 0% there, one cannot assume that the 30% represents that

34 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report proportion of the total poached. Ironically, the elephants poachers and had a major negative impact on elephant feel safer in Sangba, even though it is comprised of distribution. hunting zones, because of anti-poaching patrols and Eves (2006; Eves & Ruggiero, 2000) conducted a socio- tourism activities. economic and hunting economics study in association with WCS in the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park area of northern Martin & Stiles (2000) reported on an ivory market survey ROC in 1995-1996. She found that elephant hunting had in Bangui in 1999 and Lagrot (in prep.) conducted a similar significant economic potential for villagers. Using semi- survey in 2007, although it was unpublished at the time of structured interviews over four months in 24 villages, this project (Milliken, et al., 2009). she found that 273 elephants had been killed during this period. The number was conservative, as the count MIKE has been conducting the monitoring of elephant included only elephants killed between October 1995 and mortality in the DSC since 2005 attempting to document January 1996 by hunts originating in those villages, not the annual proportion of illegal deaths and the causes organized outside. Elephants were hunted unselectively; (CITES, 2010b). Between January 2005 and September thus return from tusks and meat was highly variable. 2009, a total of 47 elephant carcasses were found in the Distance of a kill from the village was also a factor, as it DSC, of which 32 (68%) were poached or likely poached affected the difficulty of meat transport – the greater the while one died from natural causes, one was killed as a distance, the less meat was carried back. The average profit from an elephant hunt was US$ 400, a considerable result of human-elephant conflict and the motive for the kill sum at that time in northern ROC rural areas. was inconclusive for 13 carcasses.

Eves (2006) concluded that, with the advent of increased IUCN began a project in early 2011 to establish a logging activities, improved roads and a growing monitoring and evaluation system of the socio-economic human population, bushmeat hunting would become benefits of the TNS project, which includes the DSC (http:// unsustainable, unless strict legislative, law enforcement www.iucn.org/fr/propos/union/secretariat/bureaux/paco/ and conservation actions were undertaken, along with the paco_cameroun/prg_prj_cameroun/paco_cam_prj_ftns/). development of economic alternatives to hunting.

ROC Some studies have dealt with bushmeat trade in ROC Since 1991, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), using a regional approach (e.g. Delvingt, 1997; Wilkie & in collaboration with the Government of ROC and Carpenter, 1999). Others focused on the northern ROC, international public and private-sector partners, has Wilkie, et al. (1992) in the Sembé-Ouessso area and Blake established three major site-based conservation projects (1994) in the Kabo forest. Carpaneto (1994) provided across the Ndoki-Likouala landscape in northern ROC, considerable information about semi-traditional elephant implementing three different wildlife management hunting (techniques, cultural uses, financial value) in strategies across contiguous zones: (1) integral protection the OKNP. In 1995 ECOFAC conducted its first study on of wildlife and their habitat in a core protected area – the local hunting in villages on the edge of the park, providing Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, (2) community-based quantitative data to assess its intensity, socio-economic conservation and management of wildlife and other natural contribution and impact on local wildlife (Vanwijnsberghe, resources in and around the swamp forests of the Lac Télé 1996). Community Reserve, and (3) wildlife management and conservation in several surrounding commercial logging At the same time, WCS was monitoring hunting and concessions or Forestry Management Units (FMUs). The bushmeat trade in logging concessions (Auzel & Wilkie, goal is to conserve ecologically functional populations 2000) and studying the bushmeat trade in Ouesso of forest elephants, great apes and other focal species surveying markets and hunters (Hennessey, 1995; across the Ndoki-Likouala landscape. This is achieved Hennessey & Rogers, 2008). Furthermore, WCS initiated through a ‘landscape-species approach’, which maps two socio-economic studies on urban trade of hunting spatial ecological requirements conservation targets products in Brazzaville, one of them on bushmeat (‘landscape species’) and, based on their overlap with (Malonga, 1996), producing detailed information about human land uses, identifies key threats to be addressed the commodity chain, quantities, species and incomes by conservation action. The Ndoki-Likouala monitoring generated, and one on carved ivory (Madzou & Moukassa, programme has the primary objective of evaluating the 1996) updated in 1999 (Madzou, 1999). impact of different management strategies on the density and abundance of landscape species (Stokes, et al., Studies have also been carried out to monitor hunting 2010). They found that logging roads were exploited by and bushmeat trade in logging concessions (Auzel &

Daniel Stiles 35 Wilkie, 2000; Wilkie, et al., 2000, 2001; Elkan, et al., domestic demand from the area’s inhabitants, given the 2006; Poulsen, et al., 2007, 2009; Mockrin, et al., 2011). over 3% annual population growth. The paper proposed Logging activities impact adversely on elephants and management approaches that addressed the demand other wildlife in several ways: the work camps create for and supply of bushmeat, which are targeted at those demand for bushmeat, logging truck drivers encourage political districts within the OFR where hunting is the bushmeat hunting as a supplement to their income through greatest threat to populations of bushmeat species. participating in transport and marketing and logging roads create access to previously inaccessible forest areas. In 1996 and 1997 De Merode and others (2004, 2006, 2007) studied busmeat offtake, utilization and trade Although ivory trade issues were discussed in most of the around the Garamba NP, about 200 km north-east of the papers previously mentioned, a more complete analysis OFR during periods of armed conflict and peace time. of ivory trafficking in Congo, as well as elephant hunting in They found that bushmeat was much more important and around northern protected areas, including the OKNP economically than nutritionally, as most meat was sold, is presented by Nishihara (2003). An update on ivory making up an important part of household income. They markets should appear in Lagrot (in prep.). also found that the poorer segment of the population did not benefit much from wild resources because of WCS and ECOFAC have undertaken several socio- social and political constraints on access – community economic studies to better understand the sustainability leaders and/or military commanders controlled hunting of hunting and bushmeat and ivory trade and their value and trade in bushmeat and other natural resources. They in supporting livelihoods. WCS, in the framework of the also concluded that social institutions such as traditional OKNP-PROGEP socio-economic programme (Projet leadership (i.e. village chiefs and elders) were more de Gestion des Ecosytèmes Périphériques or Project important than law enforcement (i.e. anti-poaching patrols) for Ecosystem Management in Periphery Areas), is still in controlling the poaching of protected species and trade monitoring the bushmeat flow of six key sites within the in their products. FMU of Ngombe, which is exploited by the Forest Industry of Ouesso (IFO), a logging company adjoining the OKNP. In 2006, the Ituri-Epulu-Aru Landscape consortium The monitoring, which includes an annual survey of local began work on a land-use planning strategy that included population food habits, is being conducted in Liouesso, bushmeat management, facilitated by the Congo Basin Molanda, Ngombé site, Zoulabouth and Mokouangonda Forest Partnership (CBFP) (see www.cbfp.org). As part (Elende, 2009; Elende & Zoubabela, 2006). of this process, a stakeholder participation policy is being formulated. Consortium members (WCS, CARPE, GIC, Several reports have been published of elephant and great IUCN) raise awareness and educate stakeholders about ape population surveys in the OKNP and adjacent areas the national Forestry Code and the value of zoning and within the context of the WWF-TRIDOM and ECOFAC land-use planning. Since local government authorities projects, which provide useful elephant number and lack funds and expertise, consortium NGOs help build density data (Blake, 2006a; Kiminou, et al., 2007; Malonga, et al., 2007, 2009). local capacity by facilitating the creation of local resource management structures and by assisting stakeholders to

DRC articulate a concept for resource management (Brown, et Various anthropological research projects were carried al., 2009; Brown, 2010). out in the 1970s and 1980s on Pygmies in the Ituri Forest (e.g. Hart, 1978, 2000; Hart & Hart, 1986; Baily & Peacock, Consortium partners have collected data on human 1988; Ichikawa, 1983; Wilkie, 1989; Wilkie & Curran, populations and their livelihood activities in the Landscape. 1989; Wilkie, et al., 1992). These studies dealt with human Biological and socio-economic data were collected in the ecology, hunting techniques, animal offtake, land-use and ENRA logging concession. Studies on bushmeat hunting, settlement patterns. Since Pygmies did not traditionally non-timber forest products and artisanal timber exploitation hunt elephants, the research is of only indirect relevance were conducted. Participatory sketch mapping was to this study. None of the publications discuss trade in conducted in 42 villages in the three Community Based elephant meat or ivory. Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) zones (Banana, Andekau and Bakwanza). Eleven agricultural zones Wilkie, et al. (1998) studied bushmeat offtake around covering 30,700 ha have been delimited with agreement the OFR and concluded that the area was too small from local communities and two more are in progress to provide a sustainable supply of bushmeat to meet (Brown, 2010). This information is being used to guide

36 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report the land-use planning process, especially for community- the area’s wildlife, and especially its elephants, under managed forests. unprecedented threat.

The draft management plan calls for the commercial During this six-month period, 17,000 kg of ivory was production of an ambitious range of products ranging estimated to have left the OFR, through the complicity and from saw timber and other wood and non-timber forest active involvement of members of the Congolese military, products to bushmeat and fish. The income projected two militia groups, members of the national police based to communities could be substantial, particularly from in Mambasa, and a number of Congolese businessmen saw timber (US$ 2.7 million/year). Bushmeat would be and women from the region (towns of Beni, Butembo, marketed only in local villages – with long distance trade Bunia and Mambasa). The ICCN report also documented prohibited – and generate an estimated US$ 21,600/year that elephant meat was sold along the Mambasa-Dingbo (ECODIT, 2010). Road and in the Mambasa market, under the eyes of the local authorities, as well as in several villages in the OFR Lokoka & Boundawana (2010) studied poaching and vicinity. bushmeat offtake in OFR from May 2009 to May 2010. The Organisation d’Accompagnement et d’Appui aux WCS currently has a monitoring and conservation project Pygmées (OSAPY), a local NGO that works mainly to in OFR, but no data on bushmeat trade has been produced improve the livelihood of Pygmies, set up a network of by it. Hart, et al. (2008) reported in a WCS publication bushmeat hunting and trading monitors along the RN 4 that very little evidence for recent elephant poaching highway and its north-south offshoots that pass in the was found in a survey of OFR made between 2005 and 2007. Nevertheless, they concluded that the elephant OFR area, as part of the CARPE programme. The study population in the reserve had declined by almost half since identified a number of persons and localities involved in a survey made in 1995 due to poaching that took place illegal hunting of elephants and other bushmeat species. during the armed conflict period 1996-2004. Population They found that 18 out of 24 informants reported poaching surveys of ungulates suggested that offtake of antelopes elephants and trading in either its meat or ivory. The AK- was unsustainable. The use of firearms in hunting was 47, a small calibre military firearm, was the most commonly rare; snares and Pygmy net-hunting were the principal used weapon to hunt elephants and other large mammals, methods used to capture bushmeat species. They found often by members of the FARDC, the Congolese army. that there was confusion in the minds of some local people They found that local military officers, business people, interviewed during the study as to what constituted legal professional poachers and even the environmental officer versus illegal activities, especially hunting and purchase of Nia-Nia were involved in poaching and meat and ivory of bushmeat. Sanctions imposed for illegal activities trafficking. were unknown. WCS recommended that an initial set of rules and regulations for management of the hunting Mubalama & Mapilanga (2001) reported on anti-poaching and integral protection zones should be developed and activities in OFR during the civil war period (1996-2000), communicated to local communities that occupied the specifically focusing on elephants. They noted how the reserve. arrival of foreign military personnel and rebel militias, the increased number of weapons in circulation, and MIKE, in cooperation with ICCN, has been monitoring an upsurge in demand for bushmeat and ivory all led the illegal killing of elephants in OFR since 2003 (CITES, to an increase in poaching. With international support, 2010a). Between 2003 and the end of 2008, 71 elephant ICCN was able to temporarily reduce elephant poaching, carcasses were reported in the OFR to MIKE. Of these, 68 but without political stability and a functioning national (95.8%) were thought to have been poached, whether for government presence, the situation eventually deteriorated ivory, meat or both is not known. The OFR has the highest and elephant poaching once again reached critical levels Proportion of Illegally Killed Elephants of any monitoring (Amboya, 2004). site in its programme.

Amboya (2004) carried out a study on elephant poaching in the OFR area, supported by ICCN and the Inventory Monitoring Unit (IMU) of the WCS. Between June and December, 2004, during a period of armed conflict and forest invasion by illegal coltan and gold miners, the OFR suffered an extraordinary level of poaching that put

Daniel Stiles 37 National Laws related ROC Elephants are totally protected in ROC. Killing an elephant to Elephants (except for non-commercial situations as specified in law) or trade in its products is completely illegal. A concise summary is presented below of the national laws of each country relevant to elephant conservation, hunting DRC and bushmeat trade. A more comprehensive review can Elephants are Class I, totally protected, and it is illegal to be found in Appendix I. All four case study countries are kill them (except for non-commercial situations as specified Parties to CITES. in law) or to trade in elephant products.

Cameroon Elephants with tusks weighing more than 5 kg are classed as Class B species (Partially Protected), while elephants with tusks weighing less than 5 kg are Class A species (Fully Protected).

Cameroon law permits both the hunting of elephants with >5 kg tusks and the selling of the meat and trophies, as long as the required permits and licenses have been obtained. Laws also permit the capture and sale of bushmeat from unprotected species.

In early 2010, however, MINFOF announced that bushmeat could only be sold in designated markets that could be more easily monitored by government law enforcements agents. Bushmeat sold outside of the authorized markets would be considered illegal. The government also prohibited the transport of bushmeat to markets on trains, timber trucks and pubic transportation, and the announcement stated that the sale of the meat of protected species (specifically identifying the elephant) was completely prohibited (Ntaryike, 2010; Valk, 2010). The legal status of this public announcement is unclear, as current law contradicts it.

CAR Prior to 1985, elephant hunting under certain conditions was permitted, but Ordinance No. 85/005 of 30 January 1985 closed any type of elephant hunting anywhere in CAR. Unfortunately, the ordinance made no mention of elephant trophies or other products that might originate from natural deaths, self-defence killings or legal, administrative elephant killings. Nor did the ordinance change the classification of elephants from totally protected (A, with tusks <10 kg) and partially protected (B, tusks >10 kg) species. Sections of certain laws could be interpreted to support the trade in elephant meat and ivory, if specified procedures are followed and permits obtained. Although legislation is ambiguous on the question, all trade in elephant meat is treated as illegal in CAR, and laws relating to trade in ivory are ambiguous.

38 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Methods

The methodology development was divided into four broad traders or local markets, then return to urban phases: areas to resell to vendors. Middlemen sometimes organize, arm and finance hunting expeditions to 1. Study design obtain certain items, usually ivory, which makes 2. Case study field work them what is commonly called in Central Africa 3. Data analysis a commanditaire. These commanditaires have 4. Report preparation access to money and influence and are usually government officials, military officers, police or businessmen. Study design Transporter: Transporters carry elephant products from The country case studies were designed to include: point to point on hire by hunters, middlemen or • Institutional support in each country vendors. Transporters do not sell meat or ivory, • Personnel (national experts, consultants, technical which distinguishes them from middlemen. advisors and research assistants) • Identification of data variables to collect Vendor: Vendors are individuals selling elephant products • Formulation of data collection methodology in markets, shops, restaurants, personal homes • Selection of the data collection localities and on the roadside. Vendors generally proliferate • Budget in regional towns and large cities, where a large • Work plan consumer base exists. • Report format Consumer: Only bushmeat consumers were interviewed in Consultation with IUCN/SSC-AfESG and MIKE staff this study. They buy elephant meat in the market were made to produce a detailed planning document that place, restaurants or from itinerant hunters or included all of the above. Discussions with bushmeat middlemen for consumption. An ivory consumer experts in WWF, WCS, Zoological Society of London would be a person who buys worked ivory from a (ZSL), TRAFFIC and universities were carried out. workshop, retail outlet or online via the Internet. This process took over two months. In the end, a comprehensive set of desired data variables was defined Data collection localities consisted of settlements in the and questionnaires were designed to collect the data, both vicinity of MIKE monitoring sites and also included a quantitative and qualitative. representative sample of types of market centres (large urban, regional urban and small rural). It was hoped that Four different types of informants were identified to elephant bushmeat commodity chains and the social interview, with standardized questionnaires for each: networks operating them could be determined for each hunters, transporters/middlemen, vendors and consumers. case study. They are defined as:

Hunter: Hunters are individuals who hunt wild animals. They can be subsistence hunters, snaring, netting or shooting animals primarily to feed the family while practising another profession (e.g. farmer, shopkeeper), or they can be commercial hunters, those who hunt primarily to sell wildlife products (e.g. meat, ivory, hides).

Middleman: Middlemen act as intermediaries between suppliers and buyers of elephant products. They might travel to source points or rural sale points to purchase products directly from hunters, local

Daniel Stiles 39 Case study field work driven sampling (RDS) to identify informants. RDS has been shown to work well with secretive populations The study was coordinated by the Project Consultant (PC), (Heckathorn, 1997, 2002). The research teams recruited who subcontracted team leaders to carry out field work and hunter, middlemen and transporter, market vendor and conduct preliminary data analysis in Cameroon, CAR and consumer informants. As a result of limited field time, the ROC. The PC supervised the DRC study himself, as no number and geographic distribution of informant types one could be found to do it in the time-frame designated. were usually not large enough to represent statistically valid samples. The institutional support in the four country case studies was comprised of: The data on most variables were collected through semi-structured interviews and observations based on Cameroon – In Yokadouma, the WWF-TRIDOM project questionnaires in French provided to the country team provided valuable information, maps and reports on leaders by the PC. Informal interviews were conducted in their activities in Boumba-Bek and also the nearby PAs natural settings, including markets, homes, restaurants of Nki and Lobéké. In Yaoundé, the MIKE Central Africa and elephant meat and ivory sale points. RAs, trained Subregional office, WWF-Cameroon and LAGA shared in study questions, then utilized memory recall to ask helpful information. particular questions during informal interviews. These were systematically recorded on hand-held voice recorders CAR – The Director of Wildlife and Protected Areas in whenever possible, and in the DRC study, video recording the MWFHF authorized the study and the WWF staff was taken using a hidden micro-camcorder. Interviewing of the Dzanga-Sangha Project recommended research has been shown to yield reliable information on quantities, assistants, provided information and furnished transport effort and spatial patterning of natural resource harvesting to assist the study. The conservator (warden) of Dzanga- (Jones, et al., 2008). Sangha provided summary reports of activities and Excel versions of elephant carcass data. The Director of Questionnaires developed for social science research are Wildlife and Protected Areas in the MWFHF also provided increasingly being used in the biological sciences when a number of background documents, including the DSP studying human natural resource utilization (Adams, 2007; conservation plan and GIS mapping work completed by White, et al., 2005). However, because of the clandestine GTZ. nature of most wildlife trade, Barber-Meyer (2010) found that market surveys yield more valid results with repeated ROC – The International Conservation and Education surveys over time and applying ‘occupancy’ methods to Fund in Brazzaville provided office space, accommodation data analysis, which require repeated surveys. Repeat and help with finding research assistants, ECOFAC surveys obviously require more time and resources, assisted with transportation, lodging and information, WCS which might be possible in future in this project. Also, with in Ouesso provided office space and information and increased field time, participatory observation could be WWF-TRIDOM based in Sembe shared knowledge. carried out that would yield much better quantitative data (e.g. Fa, et al., 2004; Field, et al., 2005; Rist, et al., 2010). DRC – ICCN assisted with accommodation, personnel and Depending on recall alone from informants has shown that information in OFR, Gilman International Conservation generational or personal amnesia can bias results through helped by providing an Internet connection and OSAPY a phenomenon termed ‘shifting baseline syndrome’ when made available research assistants and office backup in collecting quantitative data (Papworth, et al., 2010); thus Kisangani. the results presented here should be interpreted with caution. The original project design called for two to three months in the field, but because of difficulties in engaging Participant identity was protected to promote the formation subcontractors to lead country case studies, field periods of trusting relationships and to improve the percentage of were reduced considerably to four to six weeks in each truthful responses in data collected. Anonymity was en- country. sured through the use of a secure data source and code- identification system for raw data. Informants were identi- Given the legally sensitive nature of this topic and in an fied with a letter indicating their location, a second letter attempt to be a non-threatening observer and participant indicating their role in the trade and a number in the order in the study sites, the research teams used respondent- they were interviewed, as follows:

40 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Actors were identified as: H = hunter, T = transporter, M = middleman, V = vendor

Research sites were identified by their place name, for example:Y = Yokadouma, N = Ngato, M = Moloundou, Lo = Lomie, Ya = Yaoundé, B = Brazzaville, O = Ouesso, etc.

Code Type Coding sequence Example Decoding

Hunter (H) Locality Informant type Number MH1 Moloundou hunter #1 Middleman (M) Locality Informant type Number BM3 Brazzaville middleman #3

Research assistants (RAs) often employed cover stories (e.g. university student studying elephant meat trade, elephant meat dealer, tour guide, etc.) to draw more candid information from informants in a very short time-frame, even though in some cases the RAs knew informants previously and could use that relationship to elicit truthful responses. Most interactions with informants spanned two hours to a few days. Data was periodically cross-checked when possible to verify and adjust variation by repeating the same questions with both the same informants and other informants in the same survey site.

Whenever possible, elephant and other meats were weighed in order to obtain price data, but not all country teams possessed scales and therefore most price per kg data are estimates, or are not presented at all.2 Prices obtained in local currencies are converted to US Dollars (US$). Currency conversion rates varied during the research period, but the averaged rate for the FCFA in Cameroon, CAR and ROC of US$ 1 = FCFA 500 was used and in DRC US$ 1 = 900 CF was used.

2 Four Pesola electronic scales were purchased prior to field work, but unfortunately, all of them ended up in Brazzaville and it was not possible to distribute them to the other countries.

Daniel Stiles 41 Results

Since killing elephants and trading in their products is Hunters illegal in all of the case study countries, it was difficult to find informants willing to speak openly on the subject, so The number of elephant hunters that responded to sample sizes are small and may not be representative of questions numbered 11 in Cameroon, eight in CAR, 28 the total population of actor type (i.e. hunter, middleman, in ROC and seven in DRC, for a total of 54. The hunters etc.) in each country. Even those that agreed to speak did were in all cases male and they ranged in age from 25 to not answer every question posed to them, nor, it is thought, 68. In each country, several different ethnic groups were did some informants answer truthfully to all questions involved, with none predominating, and very often Pygmies they did answer. In addition, because of the limited time made up part of the hunting party. In north-western Congo available in the field, it was not possible to spend the time Basin, Pygmies are sometimes the shooters, as well as necessary in each locality to create trust and to cross- being trackers and porters, but in north-eastern DRC, check adequately all questions with multiple informants for Pygmies did not hunt elephants; they were mainly trackers consistency and accuracy. and porters.

No statistical tests were carried out on the data, as those Hunters were interviewed mainly in villages and towns collected are considered preliminary and incomplete. and in CAR, in the capital Bangui, where they were Multivariate regressions, correlations, cluster analyses encountered bringing bushmeat to market. In DRC some and so on based on poor data can create an illusion that were interviewed on the site of an old elephant kill. No conclusions drawn from such data sets have credibility. hunting camps were visited in the forest due to the short If researchers are to increase the utility of scientific time-frame of the field work. assessments for evidence-based policy, the information provided must be representative, authentic and technically In CAR only two of the hunters interviewed actually hunted accurate in order to provide credible and data-based in the DSC MIKE site, and they were based in villages scenarios for decision makers (Watson 2005). Target- on the Cameroon side of the border, which is marked based conservation is the most desirable and should be by the Sangha River. One was in Libongo and the other ‘transparent, simple to convey and allow conservation was in Socambo, the latter near the ROC border as well. progress to be measured’ (Carwardine et al., 2009). The other six hunters were based in Bangui and hunted Credible data are crucial to the policy-making process elephants in the north around the Bamingui-Bangoran (Friess & Webb, 2011). It is hoped that future research National Park. All of the other hunters interviewed hunted based on what has been achieved in this pilot phase will in the sample MIKE site areas. provide more complete data sets with which to conduct analyses that can produce predictive models and iterative The hunters were asked if they were primarily subsistence hypotheses to test. hunters, i.e. targeting elephants and other game to obtain meat for home consumption, or commercial hunters, In spite of these limitations, the quantitative data and i.e. killing elephants to sell products obtained from the qualitative information gathered do reveal a tantalizing activity. They were also asked if they hunted full time as snapshot of illegal elephant killing and trafficking of a profession or if they hunted part time and had other products derived from the activity. economic pursuits, and if they hunted for themselves or worked for someone else on command. Table 1 presents Table 1. Types of elephant hunters interviewed the results.

Country Number Subsistence Commercial Full Time Part Time Hunting for Self On command Cameroon 11 0 11 2 9 1 10 CAR 8 0 8 0 8 4 4 ROC 28 0 28 9 19 17 11 DRC 7 0 7 0 7 0 7 Total 54 0 54 11 43 22 32

42 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report The dichotomy in reality is not as distinct as Table 1 would hunters classified themselves as full time hunters, two in suggest. Although the table indicates that all of the hunters Cameroon and nine in ROC. None were full time in CAR are classified as ‘commercial’, many said that they were or DRC. also ‘subsistence’, as they did consume elephant meat and take some back to the home to share with family Hunters were asked what their primary motivation was and friends. It is also common to secure other game in killing elephants in an attempt to assess the relative animals for food on the hunt and to take back bushmeat. importance of meat and ivory as causes of poaching. Since all of the hunters stated that their primary aim in Table 2 shows the results. hunting was to sell elephant products, they were typed as commercial hunters. In addition, several hunters said that The majority of hunters responding (28 of 52, or 54%) sometimes they hunted elephants on their own initiative stated that their primary motivation for killing elephants and other times they were hired to do so. The latter were was that they were commanded to do so for ivory, while 21 (41%) said that they were after ivory for themselves; thus Table 2. Hunter’s primary motive for killing elephants 94% of hunters primarily hunted for ivory. Some hunters,

Country A B C D E F G H Cameroon 1 8 CAR 1 3 4 ROC 0 18 10 DRC 1 6 Total 3 21 28

A - Meat for self, family E - Commanded to hunt for ivory B - Sell meat for self F - Protect crops, property or life C - Sell meat on command G - Cultural reason D - Sell ivory for self H - Other all classified as hunting ‘on command’; only hunters that only in CAR and ROC, hunted ivory for themselves, an always hunted for themselves were typed as ‘hunting for interesting difference with hunters in Cameroon and self’. An unusually high proportion of hunters around OKNP DRC, who all hunted for ivory on command. Only three in ROC hunted for themselves. The reason for this cannot (6%) hunters hunted elephants primarily for meat to at present be explained. sell, one each in Cameroon, CAR and DRC. No hunters killed elephants for meat on command or primarily for The majority of hunters (32, or 59%) work for people who subsistence. All of the hunters who hunted primarily for are termed ‘commanditaires’, in other words ‘those who ivory cited hunting for meat as the second most important command to hunt’. Informants said that it is common in motivation. A few indicated that self-defence (F) and Central Africa for a highly placed or fairly affluent person cultural reasons (G) were of tertiary importance. to hire a hunting team to go after elephants, always for ivory. These commanditaires can be government officials, Overall, 46 (85.2%) of the hunters reported that some police or military officers, businessmen and even religious figures (pastors or priests). They often provide the hunters meat was taken on the last elephant hunt: six (54.5%) in with weapons, ammunition, basic foodstuffs, drink and Cameroon, six (75%) in CAR, 28 (100%) in ROC and six cigarettes, in effect, subsidizing the hunt. On completion (85.2%) in DRC. of a successful hunt, the hunters turn the tusks over to the commanditaire and are allowed to keep meat and other Hunters were asked various questions about their last trophies, plus the lead hunter is often paid a little money. elephant hunt in an attempt to measure the work effort involved in such an undertaking. To collect this type of Those hunters who had other professions, such as data for many hunting expeditions would take more time farmer or shopkeeper, commonly hunted part time. This than was at the research teams’ disposal, plus many of the was the case for 80% of the hunters. In Cameroon and informants had difficulty in recalling or estimating accurate ROC, many of the part time hunters farmed cocoa and responses. Table 3 presents a summary of their responses did not hunt during the harvest season. Only 20% of the with range and mean for each variable. More details not

Daniel Stiles 43 Table 3. Sample cases of work effort involved in an elephant hunt* Country No. of respondants Distance travelled Time on Hunt (Days) No. in party (km) Cameroon 11 - 8-34 (16) 2-15 (5) CAR 8 - 10-34 (17) 3-13 (8) ROC 28 22-100 (53) 2-21(9) 2-6 (4) DRC 7 30-262 (116) 3-21 (17) 5-18 (10)

* *The mean is in brackets ( ), rounded off to the nearest whole number. - Insufficient data. presented here were also gathered that shed light on work are used to enter the forest by dugout canoe. Elephant effort. hunters know from experience favoured places that elephants frequent, such as clearings (bai/edo), water It is evident that a great amount of work and manpower points and mineral soil outcrops, and they usually try these are usually involved in an elephant hunt. The average time places first. They set up a simple camp in the area they for one hunting expedition ranged from 9 to 17 days and have decided to hunt in and use it as a base for a few to usually more than 50 km was covered on foot in dense several days, depending on their goals and luck in the forest, with an average of four to ten people in the hunting hunt. Hunters tend to reuse the same camp spots. party. Multiple elephants are usually killed during a single expedition, with nine reported as a maximum in ROC and After the elephant kill and removing the tusks and, if it seven in DRC. takes place, butchery and meat-smoking, the products are usually carried out by foot to a road. Sometimes The methods of hunting were similar in each of the middlemen (often women) who have been informed in countries. In the case of the commanded hunt, the advance enter the forest on a village path by foot or with commanditaire would contact one or two experienced a motorcycle or bicycle to buy meat and transport it to elephant hunters to lead the hunt. He would give them market. Depending on where the hunting party ended up, instructions of what he wanted and they would negotiate they might return the way they came back to the village the terms. The hunters would assemble a hunting party they left from, where they often give meat or choice parts made up of trackers, usually Pygmies, assistant hunters such as the trunk or liver to local leaders to maintain good and porters, the number depending on the goals of the will and villagers’ complicity in the illegal hunting activity; or hunt (number of tusks, quantity of elephant meat, other they might take the shortest distance to reach a road. meat and other products). Recompense would be the food, drink and cigarettes while on the hunt, a portion of the hunted meat and usually a small amount of money. An RA interviews hunters at the site of an old elephant The ROC hunters could also keep one tusk of each kill in the OFR. (Photo: R. Lokoka) elephant, usually sold to the commanditaire. This used to be the custom in DRC as well, but is no longer. When hunters worked for themselves, they had to finance the hunt out of pocket, which might explain why there were so many hunters (except around OKNP) working for commanditaires.

The hunting parties enter the forest on foot using paths from villages bordering the protected area. Villages normally have paths that are used by villagers to reach slash-and-burn shifting cultivation fields and to reach resources that they exploit by subsistence hunting and collecting. Since elephants rarely come near habitation sites, hunters have to go deep into the forest (>5 km) to find them. When they leave village paths they follow elephant trails to search for elephants. Occasionally, rivers

44 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Once the hunting party reaches a road a variety of Elephant meat transport methods were recounted by informants: In Cameroon, the hunter who hunted primarily for elephant • The commanditaire or his agent comes to pick up the meat was also the one hunter who hunted for himself, tusks and other products; not working for a commanditaire. In DRC the one hunter • Hunters wait on the road for any passing transport, mainly after meat was doing it on behalf of his uncle, a which could be a private vehicle, government vehicle, businessman, and his wife was a bushmeat vendor. No public transport, logging truck or even a UN or NGO information is available for the one meat hunter in northern vehicle (informants reported that government, UN and CAR3. NGO personnel could occasionally be persuaded or bribed to cooperate); The amount of meat taken from elephant kills and its use • The hunting party divides up the products and was of critical interest to this study, but collecting such individuals make their way home or to market data after the fact based on memory proved difficult. Some however they can; informants responded with estimated weights, others • Hunters working for themselves generally return to with proportions of the elephant carcass and others by their home villages and hide the tusks until a buyer number of bundles or sacks carried away. With the latter, can be found, or until they take them to a town where a weight per bundle or sack was estimated. If meat was they can sell them, using any transport available to sold, quantity and price data were also obtained. Table 4 them. Ivory traders are usually well known to hunters. presents a summary of the data obtained from informants. The percentages represent an estimate of the proportion Hunters reported that tusks were the highest risk products of the carcass taken. The numbers in brackets are the to be caught with by the authorities. average quantity reported being taken for all recalled kills.

Very little of the elephant carcass is consumed on average by the hunting party at the kill site, with the maximum reported being about 5% of the animal in CAR, which consisted of three cases. In two of the kills there were 13 in the hunting party and in one there were 11, fairly large numbers. In all of these cases the hunting parties remained at the kill site to smoke meat for two to three days. The 12% (column A) reported for BBNP in Cameroon includes 2% consumed at the site and 10% carried away fresh to consume later and share with others, which 3 In early 2011, well after the termination of field work, there were reports of consisted of a whole leg. The parts eaten at the kill site Sudanese elephant poachers travelling over a thousand km on camelback usually include the organs (heart, liver, kidneys, etc.), the from northern CAR to the Berberati/Dzanga-Sangha area. Elephant meat was selling in profusion around Berberati and tusks were taken back to northern flesh around the eyes, cheeks and sometimes the trunk or CAR. Government forces attacked them near Bayanga (Anon., 2011a). feet, which are much appreciated, along with meat.

Table 4. Utilization of meat from recalled elephant kills Country A B C D E Cameroon4 0-12% (2.3%) 0-40% (10%, or 0% 0-60% (8%, or 5 (45%) ~ 100 kg) ~ 80 kg) CAR 2-5% (3.5%) 0-165 kg (85 kg) 0% 0-630 kg (260 kg) 1 (13%) ROC ~1% 0-10 kg (6 kg) 0% 10-300 kg (100 kg) 0 DRC ~1% 0-315 kg (82 kg) 0% 0-1000 kg (279 kg) 1 (14%) Mean range 1-3.5% 6-100 kg 0% 80-279 kg 0-5 (0-45%) A - fresh meat consumed by hunters/shared D - smoked meat sold B - smoked meat for personal/shared use E - kills when no meat taken C - fresh meat sold

Daniel Stiles 45 Smoked meat – The amount of smoked elephant meat Elephant meat is smoked prior to transport to carried away for home consumption or non-commercial conserve it and reduce weight. (Photo: Karl sharing varied greatly, from none up to an estimated 400 Ammann) kg, or the 40% of a carcass reported in one instance for Cameroon.4 The next highest amount was 315 kg the probability of detection is low. When the hunters feel reported from OFR in DRC, but in general relatively small safe, and depending on the number of porters available to amounts of elephant meat were taken for personal use. carry meat, tusks and other gear, meat will be smoked to From zero up to a tonne of smoked meat was reported reduce weight and to preserve it. This takes on average as carried away to sell. A tonne of smoked meat (1,500 two days or even three. Fresh meat will normally not be kg fresh) is considered about the maximum quantity that taken in any quantity, or at all, because in the hot, humid could be obtained from an average adult forest elephant. forest conditions, it goes bad fairly quickly, and transport That particular case was in the OFR and the hunting party out of the forest to market would result in trying to sell numbered 18. Informants reported that the quantities rotten meat. The cases in which no meat at all is taken are carried away to sell were in most instances larger than those when either (1) tusks are the target and there are those carried for consumption, but the sample size is small not enough porters for meat or (2) the kill is made in a spot and more research is needed in this area. where the probability of detection is high, in which case the tusks are hacked out and the poachers depart quickly. These spots are usually near roads or settlements. There Fresh meat – It is of interest to note that there were no are therefore two main reasons why fresh elephant meat is cases of fresh meat being carried away to sell (C in Table rarely carried away from a kill: either the transport distance 4). The reason for this is related to the cause of the cases is too great and spoilage would occur, or fear of detection reported in which no meat was carried away at all (D). causes the hunters to depart quickly after taking the tusks. Because of the fear of being caught by the authorities, One can see in Table 4 that from 0 to 45% of the time in most elephant kills are made deep in the forest where reported cases, no meat at all was taken (E).

4 It is proposed in this study that an adult forest elephant weighing 3,000 A certain number of people in a hunting party are brought kg (Stephenson, 2004) could provide 1,000 kg of smoked meat. Studies of along as porters. When the meat is smoked, the chunks smaller wild and domesticated animals indicate that about 50% of live carcass weight is fresh meat and that 30-35% of this is lost in smoking (Christian are divided up into 30-50 kg lots that are packed into Fargeot and Nathalie van Vliet, in litt., November 2010). Empirical studies have backpacks made from rattan, other woody vines or been carried out that support these estimates for elephants (Peter Lindsey, in litt., April 2011). branches to be carried out to a village or path-head on a

46 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Table 5. Estimates of potential earnings from smoked believed to protect from lightning elephant meat reported sold • hide – leather (an Internet search found elephant skin boots selling for US$ 400-700 a pair), medicine and Country Range in kg Price/kg Total witchcraft (US$) earnings • ears – high quality drum skins (US$) • feet – food, prized even more than the trunk; Cameroon 0-600* 2 0-1,200 fabricated into receptacles CAR 0-630 2-3.33 0-2,098 • spinal column marrow – medical, to treat rheumatism ROC 10-300 2.40-3 24-900 by massage and culinary, to use in cooking (DRC) DRC 0-1,000 1-5.55 0-5,550 • fat – used in cooking • musth hormone secretion – use unknown (Cameroon) * 60% of the carcass in Table 4, D. • dung – used in medicine in DRC

road. In OKNP flour sacks were usually used. The hairs from an elephant’s tail are used to make bracelets. (Photo: S. Latour) Table 5 reports on estimates of income derived for smoked meat that hunters sold, based on what they reported as quantities (D in Table 4) and local prices.

The hunters did not provide a single figure as the amount in total that they earned from a single elephant kill, as the manner in which elephant meat is distributed amongst the participants and utilized by each is complex and not known in a quantitative sense by any single informant. A potential minimum-maximum estimate was therefore calculated using the quantity and price figures supplied by the informants. The minimum price was multiplied by the minimum amount of meat sold and maximum price multiplied by the maximum amount of meat reported sold to obtain the range of total potential earnings that hunters could have gained from the smoked meat they sold in each country sample. No systematic data were gathered on the prices for these items, but in ROC the tail was said to sell for US$ 2-10, OKNP in ROC seems an anomaly, as only 300 kg was depending on size, and in DRC six tail hairs could be sold the maximum reported to be carried away to sell. If it for US$ 1. The tail is always carried away. In Cameroon, skin sold for US$ 1 for a 5 cm square piece. Farmers bury does represent the norm, the small quantity could be due it on the edge of their fields, as they believe it protects to small hunting parties as a result of fear of detection, crops. Much more research is needed to quantify the trade and/or the fact that most of the hunting parties were not in elephant products. subsidized by a commanditaire. Table 3 shows that ROC does have the smallest average hunting party size (4), supporting this hypothesis. Looking at the other samples, anywhere from US$ 1,200 to US$ 5,550 could have been earned from smoked meat by hunters, a huge sum in rural Central Africa where poverty is extreme.

Other elephant products - The non-meat products and usages are:

• trunk – preferred to meat for its succulence; given to the authorities as gifts for their complicity in poaching • tail – used to make bracelets and in eastern DRC

Daniel Stiles 47 Ivory Weapons

Hunters were very reticent to discuss ivory in any detail. Cameroon – Most hunters said they used army rifles It was only in the DRC study where data on numbers and (said to be .458 and .450 calibre), and only one hunter weights of tusks from a hunt were obtained. There were used an AK-47 Kalashnikov automatic rifle, which was enough data to assemble a comparative picture of tusk rented from the Congolese owner after the hunter’s gun prices by weight categories, but data are not complete. was seized by the authorities. Eight hunters used guns In addition, there was very high variability in answers that belonging to the commanditaires who ordered the hunting hunters gave for prices, so what is presented in Table 6 expeditions, and two used guns belonging to the safari should be considered as tentative and subject to further hunting companies employing them to hunt elephants research. The mean prices are rounded off to the nearest with foreign sports hunters. One hunter used his own gun US Dollar. (.458). The army guns may have been using the .458 SOCOM cartridge, which was designed for use with the Table 6. Hunter prices for tusks (US$) Locality <5 kg 5-10 kg 10-20 kg Range Mean Range Mean Range Mean BBNP - 26 - 26 30-36 32 DSC ------OKNP 5-24 12 10-40 20 20-40 31 OFR 5-30 16 15-30 29 25-80 56

Around BBNP many hunters said that they did not kill American army M-16 (Wikipedia, 2010), as the Cameroon elephants with tusks weighing less than 10 kg each, but army does use the M-16 (along with other firearms), and gave a price of US$ 26/kg for tusks smaller than 10 kg. informants said that the guns were supplied by army Tusks greater than 20 kg were US$ 36-40/kg with a mean personnel on loan. AK-47s or other known military firearms of US$ 39/kg. One middleman in Yokadouma said that he cannot use a .458 cartridge, although various big game paid a hunter US$ 1,800 for 55 kg of tusks, or US$ 32.70/ sport rifles can, which is probably what the two hunters kg. The number and individual weights of the tusks were working for a safari company used. It is not known what not reported, but the amount is consistent with hunters’ army rifle could have been the .450, cited by only one responses for the price of 10-20 kg tusks. hunter; perhaps he was mistaken. He said that the gun used a .358 cartridge, which is only used by a lever-action Around OKNP tusks greater than 20 kg ranged from US$ Winchester or Browning rifle, which ‘…pokes big holes in 36-60/kg with an average of US$ 46/kg. The higher prices targets and packs a lot of punch’ (Wolf, 2008). It was most for 10-20 kg tusks in OFR is probably because >20 kg likely not an army rifle. One hunter also mentioned using tusk prices were included by informants. The responding a 10.75 calibre rifle, which was probably an old bolt-action hunters in CAR did not know the weights of the tusks, but Mauser. Nchanji (2005) and MIKE field reports noted that said that individual tusks could earn them between US$ thick metal cables were also used to capture elephants. 170 and 600 each. In south-western Cameroon, Nchanji (2005) found that the .458 was the most common firearm seized by the In general, ivory at the hunter level seems cheapest in authorities, followed by the .404 carbine. Big game hunting northern ROC and most expensive in north-eastern DRC, rifles cost US$ 1,365-2,200. Home-made and imported although much more research needs to be carried out 12-gauge shotguns using specially made bullets are also to obtain conclusive data and the reasons for any price used in hunting elephants. differences. CAR – Informants stated that they used rifles with 10.75, The main buyers of ivory, in the cases where hunters .375 and .458 calibres, all presumably hunting rifles sold it themselves, were in northern ROC to West African (the CAR army does not have M-16s). Four of these (usually Malian) traders, in northern CAR to Sudanese, hunters owned their own guns, while three were lent and in the single case in Cameroon, the hunter sold his weapons by the commanditaires. The hunter in Libongo, tusks to a high-ranking government figure in Yaoundé. Cameroon, used an AK-47 supplied with ammunition by the commanditaire. Armed conflict has resulted in the

48 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report import and dissemination of weapons in CAR (Berman & 0.70 each, even though hunters rarely paid for the latter Lumbard, 2008). Rieu (2004) reported .375s being used by themselves, receiving them from commanditaires. elephant hunters. The rifles cost about US$ 900 each and one cartridge sold for US$ 20. Table 7 presents prices and other useful data on weapons.

ROC - The most common weapon used to hunt elephants Bullet calibres starting with a decimal point (e.g. .458) are around OKNP in ROC was the AK-47 (19 out of 26). Three a measure of the bullet diameter in inches. Those with hunters reported also using a 10.75, probably a Mauser. the decimal point between numbers (e.g. 7.62, 10.75) are Two said they used only a 10.75 rifle and four others used measured in mm. Generally, the thicker the bullet, the more a 12-gauge shotgun with home-made bullets made from effective it is, but cartridges of the same calibre can vary melted down lead shot. Two did not respond. Thousands of considerably in powder charge and bullet weight (‘grain’). AK-47s were imported during the civil war in ROC during Larger calibre bullets with higher grain counts (>200) and the 1990s and many of these have made their way into powder load are more appropriate for big game. the hands of hunters (Demetriou, et al., 2001). Informants reported that Pygmies used spearheads fired from shotguns to kill elephants.

DRC – All seven hunters said they usually used an AK-47, all belonging to FARDC officers who lent them out with ammunition. Two said they also used a SMG, which is the acronym for sub-machine gun, but it is not known what type it was, and two used the term B52 in reference to a weapon. A search of the Internet yielded no gun by that name, except a .22 calibre Winchester 52-B, a weapon that would not kill an elephant. Perhaps it is a nickname for some other gun. One hunter also mentioned using an M-16 in addition to an AK-47. It is known that elephant hunters in eastern DRC also use 12-gauge shotguns with home- made bullets, as in ROC (Karl Ammann, pers. comm., 2010). Large-bore .458 rifle and ammunition(Photos: Google Images) Military weapons such as the AK-47 and M-16 are not considered appropriate for hunting elephants, because the bullet calibres and weights are too small. Because of their Elephant hunting weapons can be categorized into three small size, many bullets are needed to kill an elephant, general types: large-bore rifles, small-bore automatic as Table 7 demonstrates in the case of ROC. Informants military weapons and shotguns using home-made bullets. around OFR in DRC responded with how many AK-47 More research needs to be carried out to calculate the cartridges they used while on a hunt, ranging from 60 to costs involved in an elephant hunt, for hunters working 500, the number correlating highly with the number of days for themselves, hunters ordered to do so, and for the in the hunting expedition. These numbers were not always commanditaires. needed to bring down one elephant, as hunters often shot more than one elephant and many other types of animals In all countries in this study, the laws state that firearms as well. This was also true in ROC, which would reduce must be accompanied by a permit and that hunting can the cost in ammunition per elephant shown in the table. only be carried out with a gun permit and hunting license for appropriate animals. These requirements are almost There is a significant difference in the number of bullets never met, although hunters with gun permits were needed to kill an elephant with a proper elephant gun encountered in Cameroon, but nowhere else. (.375, .458 or 10.75 calibre) compared to a military weapon (5.56 or 7.62 calibre). A large-bore rifle can bring down an elephant even with one bullet, although two to five was more usual in this study. The cartridges of large-bore rifles are much more expensive, however, ranging from US$ 18 to 34 each, while AK-47 cartridges cost only US$ 0.17 to

Daniel Stiles 49 Table 7. Weapons used to hunt elephants

Country Type of gun Owner Type of No. bullets per Price/bullet Total cost/ Hunter/Other bullet elephant US$ elephant Cameroon AK-47 0 1 7.62 .458 1 8 .458 3-5 30-34 90-170 M-16 ? ? 10.75 0 1 10.75 Other 1 0 .358

CAR Rifle 4 3 .458 10.75 - 18-20 -

AK-47 0 1 7.62 - - -

ROC AK-47 11 7 7.62 18-60 0.20-0.70 3.60-42 Rifle 7 0 10.75 2-4 20 40-80 12-gauge 4 0 18-20 3-7 - -

DRC AK-47 0 7 7.62 - .17-.28 - M-16 0 1 5.56 - - - Other 0 3 - - - -

12-gauge shotgun with home-made bullets for ele- AK-47 Kalashnikovs and 7.62 mm cartridges (Photos: phants (Photos: WWF) WWF)

50 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Transporters/Middlemen and take it to Lomié to sell for US$ 20/piece. She also runs a restaurant and will sell it there to trusted customers. She Elephant meat normally pays hunters US$ 16/piece for elephant meat, so Transporters do not trade in meat, but are simply hired her profit margin is modest. by hunters or middlemen to carry meat from point A to point B. They are usually paid money or receive a small None of the middlemen said that they go in search of elephant meat only. Hunters are always out hunting consideration for their service. Only one meat transporter for bushmeat, and if an elephant hunting party returns was interviewed, in Cameroon. He owned a car and used while they are visiting a village they will buy some or all it to travel the P4 road to transport people and agricultural of the meat, along with any other bushmeat. Trading products to market. He sometimes transported elephant is more active during the rainy season, March through meat in bags to Yokadouma. He was caught once and had November, and it is riskiest during the closed season, to pay a FCFA 50,000 fine (US$ 100) to WWF to release July to December, when hunting is illegal, and ecoguards his car. No meat transporters were interviewed in the seize meat at checkpoints. Bushmeat traders need to have other countries and it was not clear from interviews with several hundred dollars in capital to sustain a successful middlemen whether meat is ever sent unaccompanied trade, and a certain percentage of this goes towards with transporters. Middlemen almost always transport their bribes. meat themselves.

Because of increased activity in the south-east brought on Once in a middleman’s hands, the meat is transported by by the WWF-TRIDOM project and attention on poaching a wide variety of means, ranging from bicycles to buses, and illegal wildlife trade by other conservation NGOs and depending on the quantity of meat and distance to be LAGA, more patrolling and seizures are being made. travelled. Elephant meat is usually hidden or disguised, as Middlemen reported that elephant meat is becoming more in all case study countries it is subject to confiscation at difficult to find and prices for it have been rising. Informers checkpoints. paid by anti-poaching programmes to report illegal bushmeat trade have also reduced trade of protected No middlemen were found that specialize in elephant species such as the elephant and great apes. One meat, but rather it is included with other bushmeat in middleman reported that a hunter she regularly buys from transport. The number of meat middlemen interviewed in had recently been shot dead by the BIR. each case study were five in Cameroon, nine in CAR, 14 in ROC and only one in DRC. CAR Two men and five women were interviewed in Bangui and Cameroon two women were interviewed in Berberati. Two middlemen were interviewed in the rural area near BBNP (Ndongo and Polido’o), two were interviewed The middlemen in Bangui regularly made trips to the in Yokadouma and one in Yaoundé. All were female, far northern CAR near Ndélé to purchase elephant and except for a male who was the president of a bushmeat buffalo meat and transport this meat by public bus to association in Yokadouma. Elephant meat is always Bangui for sale (from one to three trips/month). Only one smoked. None of them traded in ivory. of the middlemen informants indicated that they currently transport ivory. This woman informant is an unusual case, The one male middleman uses a hired car to buy meat as she works hand in hand with her husband who is an along the road and transport it to Yokadouma, where he elephant hunter carrying out hunting activities near Ndélé. sells it to chop shops and market vendors for US$ 20 a She organizes the transport and sale of elephant meat and morceau, or piece. The weight of a piece is not known with ivory acquired by her husband. Three of these middlemen certainty, perhaps about 5 kg on average, according to reported buying elephant meat in Ndélé for US$ 3.33/kg RAs. One woman bushmeat trader in Yokadouma goes to and selling it in Bangui for US$ 6.67/kg. Transport costs villages near BBNP and Lobéké to wait for hunting parties from Ndélé to Bangui were reported to range from US$ 44 to return from the forest. She transports the meat by hired to US$ 80, with an additional US$ 4-18 for bribes. car to Yokadouma where she sells it to chop shops and market vendors for US$ 20/piece. She said the work is All of the middlemen had strong relationships with hunters risky and one can go to prison for three years if caught with and buyers in Bangui and played an integral role in illegal meat. Another female middleman operates to the setting up the hunt, conducting hunting activities as well west of BBNP and also uses a hired car to buy bushmeat as transporting and selling the meat to other middlemen

Daniel Stiles 51 and vendors operating in Bangui. Most of the middlemen assist in this trade or facilitate it through their subordinates. indicated that they transport moderate quantities of No information was gathered on the proportions that might elephant meat (25-50 pieces or 75 kg-150 kg) per trip, with have been sold on the way to Brazzaville. the exception of the one woman who also trades ivory. She sells larger quantities of meat to vendors at the PK12 Brazzaville middlemen receive meat from the OKNP area, market, but specific quantities were not ascertained. Most but also from other areas in northern ROC. This is often of the middleman informants indicated that they traded in transported by river, with the Congo River constituting a both elephant and buffalo meat with a strong preference main ‘highway’. The bushmeat comes from the north and for elephant meat because of high profit margins gained. also from DRC, in particular from Salonga NP (Omari & Ibata, pers. comm., 2010). Very large boats called baleinières (whaleboats) have freezers on board and The two female middlemen interviewed in Berberati can transport huge quantities of fresh and smoked meat. organized and carried out elephant hunts near Mambélé, Prohibited meat is well hidden in big trunks, which also the site identified by Rieu (2005) as an important source contain tools, diesel fuel, etc. Many transactions between locality for bushmeat sold in Berberati. Both informants middlemen and suppliers (hunters or first middlemen) are indicated that they transported elephant meat and ivory to made without even disembarking, in the middle of the river Berberati for sale to established buyers. One woman is from a pirogue to the big boats. based in Berberati and travels to Mambélé to accompany elephant hunting operations, whereupon she transports All the transporters interviewed have regular suppliers meat and ivory back to Berberati. She preferred selling and customers. They organize their trips and itinerary elephant meat in her restaurant to selling ivory because according to their suppliers and buy quantities of meat the elephant tusks were often very small. A second according to their subscribers or regular retailers’ orders. Berberati female informant accompanied hunts near If they have enough stock, they can also sell goods to Yamale and indicated that she had an established buyer infrequent customers. Middlemen in Brazzaville have in Berberati that purchased ivory from her and transported restaurant owners as customers. They use public transport it to Cameroon to sell. Transport costs and bribes ranged or governmental vehicles, if they are available. When from US$ 100 to 200 per trip. travelling by bus, checkpoints are not an obstacle for middlemen as they conceal the meat well. If the meat is ROC found by an ecoguard or the police, they bribe to continue Nine of the informants were male and five were female. on their way. Six were interviewed in villages around OKNP (Seka, Miélékouka and Zoulaboth), one was interviewed in Preliminary data from only six middlemen informants Ouesso and seven in Brazzaville. Bushmeat, including reflected a buying price for elephant meat of US$ 2.40-3/ elephant, moves in two main directions from around OKNP, kg and average selling price of US$ 3.55/kg, with a range either to Ouesso or south to Makoua and on to towns of US$ 2.40-6, but further research is needed to confirm this. The six transported 25 kg to 100 kg of elephant meat further south, and some to Brazzaville. each per trip, with an average of 47.8 kg, relatively small amounts. Only two of the meat middlemen reported also Meat travels to Ouesso by road or by boat on the Ngoko transporting ivory. River, depending on where the hunting took place. When it is by road, bushmeat and ivory are often transported by DRC official cars belonging to the people who have ordered the The one meat middleman was the sole woman products and/or provided military weapons, so they can go interviewed, a 30-year old unmarried woman from through checkpoints unhindered. Most of the meat is sold Mambasa. She works for herself and is also a farmer. She in Ouesso, although some of it is flown to Brazzaville from has been trading in bushmeat for two years. On her last the airport. trading trip she went into the forest with her own motorbike to meet hunters and spent the night, returning the next day Bushmeat from the southern sector of OKNP is hidden with about 30 kg of elephant meat and the tail, scrotum, in baggage and travels by big trucks or buses (Océan du bone marrow and some skin to Mambasa, covering 70 km Nord) straight to Brazzaville. Some middlemen also take in all. She sold 15 kg of meat at US$ 5/kg in the market advantage of the arrival of ‘officials’ in Mbomo (politicians and 15 kg to people who had ordered it, also for US$ 5/ or military) to transport the products of illicit trade to kg. She bought the meat for US$ 2/kg, thus made a gross Brazzaville. These officials either personally consent to profit on the meat of US$ 90.

52 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report One other middleman who specialized in ivory sold Boumba rivers to Moloundou, where he sells them to elephant meat in Mambasa for US$ 2.60/kg and another the commanditaire who ordered the hunt. The one in sold it in Mambasa for US$ 5/kg. Reasons for the price Djaposten has his own hunters whom he sends out to difference are not known. get tusks when he has buyers. He sells from his charcoal shop. In Kisangani, the project consultant was told that bundles of bushmeat arrive from Bafwasende at the 15th Tshopo Only in one instance was ivory observed during the study. market on the ‘City Train’ bus every Saturday night, but YM5 presented a small tusk weighing approximately 2 kg more research would need to be carried out to establish in Yokadouma, asking US$ 54 for the tusk, or US$ 27/kg. the elephant meat movements to markets around the OFR Ivory prices provided by other informants in Yokadouma and to markets further afield such as Kisangani (460 km indicated a 30-65% increase in the cost of ivory from 2005 from Epulu). to 2010, in response to higher demand and increasing legal and economic costs for trading in ivory. One middleman claimed that demand from urban buyers was Ivory Transporters/Middlemen much greater than the supply they could acquire.

Five ivory transporters and five middlemen were CAR interviewed in Cameroon, three ivory middlemen were In CAR, one ivory middleman was the woman who interviewed in CAR, none was found in ROC and three was also a meat middleman, working with her hunter ivory transporters and two middlemen were interviewed in husband to transport elephant meat and tusks from Ndélé DRC. in northern CAR to Bangui for sale. She made one to three trips a month. No further information was collected. Cameroon The other two were also women, one of whom went to The five ivory transporter informants were generally men in Mambélé and one to Yamale to buy meat and ivory from their 30s, otherwise employed as farmers (in Ndongo), with hunters and sell the commodities in Berberati. The one the exceptions of one hotel caretaker (Moloundou) and going to Yamale stated that she had a regular ivory buyer one Catholic priest (Socambo, interviewed in Yokadouma). who took her tusks to Cameroon to sell. No middleman per Ivory sales were organized with a wide range of dealer kg prices were obtained for ivory for CAR, although one types, including a brother jeweller in Yaoundé, a police stated that she received US$ 600 for a pair of small tusks commissioner in Lomié, a businessman in a Yokadouma and US$ 1,400 for a pair of larger tusks. hotel, an army officer in Yaoundé and a middleman in Moloundou. A Hausa trader in Moulondou was a well- ROC known ivory middleman, but he could not be interviewed in It was not possible to approach middlemen specialized the time available. Further information on middlemen was in ivory trade. According to NGO managers and other gathered from WWF and MINFOF staff. informed people, ivory obtained in the Ouesso area is taken to Cameroon across the Ngoko River. In Cameroon, Four of the transporters owned their own motorcycle road networks are more developed and it is easy to and one owned his own car, which they used to provide transport ivory either to Yaoundé or to the port of Douala transport for people and goods in the BBNP area. When for export. It is easier and safer to transport ivory to buyers hauling ivory for middlemen commanditaires, they in Cameroon, where demand is higher than in Brazzaville. invariably travelled at night and were paid from US$ 60 to US$ 200. The known buyers of ivory in Mbomo include local merchants, the head of the gendarmes and some Malian The five ivory middlemen were all males. Three were traders. Middlemen also operate in Ouesso, some known interviewed in Yokadouma, although one lived in to project RAs, but they respected the middlemen’s wishes Socambo (the priest), one was from Ndongo, a village to remain anonymous. near Moloundou, and the last was in Djaposten, a village between Lomié and Abang Mbang. All normally buy tusks DRC directly from hunters. One acts as a go-between hunters The transporters generally carried tusks (and meat) from and an army officer in Yaoundé who orders tusks. Three the forest on foot or bicycle. Once at a road, the tusks used hired transport and one transported tusks with his were transferred to motorbikes or private or government own motorcycle. One uses a pirogue to transport the vehicles to be taken to where they would be stored and tusks he buys inside BBNP to take them on the Dja and accumulated for further onward shipment. One person

Daniel Stiles 53 transported elephant products to his uncle, a businessman all of the expenses for the hunt. They pay the hunters by in Mambasa, one took them from around Nduye to Beni letting them keep and sell whatever products other than and Kassinde for military and businessmen middlemen, ivory they carry out with them, plus a little money. Ivory and one transported the ivory from Bandisende to traders prices are shown in Table 8. in North Kivu. Table 8. Prices that middlemen received for ivory A middleman in Mambasa took ivory to Bunia where (US$/kg) he exchanged the tusks for merchandise he sells in his shop. The other middleman is based in Kisangani. He Locality < 10 kg 10-20 kg > 20 kg said that he was associated with UN people and Chinese Yaoundé, 40 40-50 50-100 businessmen and that he went on elephant hunts himself Cameroon to bring back tusks to sell to his associates. No further CAR* < 30 > 35 - details could be collected. ROC - - -

Other middlemen not interviewed were said by the OSAPY Kisangani, DRC 30-70 80-100 >120 RAs to be FARDC officers, businessmen, government * CAR prices were based on US$ 600 for two small tusks (< 10 kg), which officials, UN peacekeepers, priests and even West means the maximum price would have been US$ 30/kg if they weighed 10 kg Africans. The middlemen in the vicinity of OFR commonly each, and the amount US$ 1,400 gained for larger tusks (10-20 kg). If they weighed 20 kg each, the price would have been US$ 35/kg, so that would be arrange an elephant hunt with known poachers and pay the minimum for this class.

Ivory is smuggled by canoe on rivers in Cameroon, ROC and DRC (Photo: Karl Ammann)

54 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Vendors Yokadouma - The Yokadouma market had 16 tables and 15 women sellers, selling different kinds of bushmeat Elephant meat including red-tailed monkeys, forest antelopes, porcupines and pangolins. Four women sold in the market and one woman ran a restaurant, as did one man. They were Cameroon between the ages of 30 and 55 and originated from Bantu Three meat vendors were interviewed at the village level, south-eastern, forest-based ethnic groups. The bulk of one each in Djaposten, Polido’o and in Lomié, six in a the bushmeat (about 80%) was smoked and only a small regional town (Yokadouma) and 20 in the capital Yaoundé. proportion was sold fresh. Ngato village, the northern Vendors in all locations normally purchased and sold entry point for Boumba Bek, Mambele and villages along elephant meat in pieces with weight ranging from 2 to 5 kg the Moloundou-Yokadouma road were identified as key each, averaging about 3 kg, according to estimations made source villages for elephant meat. This meat, 100% by RAs, in the absence of scales. Variables that appeared smoked, was only sold to well known customers in hidden to impact on price were availability of elephants in the corners outside the market. Five of the six vendors said region (lower prevalence was correlated with higher prices) that elephant meat was very popular with customers, but as well as recent law enforcement raids, which, according that it was difficult to find. More was available during the to vendors, led to an increase in prices. Market vendors rainy season. They said that the scarcity was due to the in Yokadouma and Yaoundé most often sold whole pieces LAB crackdown. The woman restaurant owner managed directly to elite restaurants or outside of the market to to buy elephant meat at US$ 10/piece and sold plates of it trusted individual customers. for US$ 2 each, selling about ten plates a day, when she had elephant meat. It is so popular that she informs known Close to the MIKE site in Ngato village, no elephant meat clients when she has it and it sells out quickly. vendors or selling points were identified. The handful of street-stall restaurants and the open-air market claimed Yaoundé - Of the 15 open-air market places, 11 were not to sell elephant meat. A WWF survey of restaurants in determined to sell bushmeat, including vendors in three Ngato also found no elephant meat being served (Fouda, markets selling elephant meat. Buyers of protected species 2009). Similar results were obtained in villages on the were primarily resellers (i.e., restaurant and hotel owners) southern edge of BBNP. and business people, but law enforcers and government officials also comprised about 12% of protected species Djaposten – The vendor here is also technically a buyers, pointing to a serious issue of complicity and middleman, as he accompanies hunters on the hunt, participation of law enforcers in the trade. Class A species, sometimes with family members. The hunters just take such as chimpanzee, gorilla and elephant meats, were the ivory and leave, but he stays behind for two days to primarily sold outside of markets by market vendors. In butcher and to smoke as much meat as can be carried total, Yaoundé markets had about 50 tables and 61 sellers back, then sells it from his house for US$ 20 per piece. In selling bushmeat. Only three sellers admitted to selling the past, before the WWF programme and the LAB, the elephant meat. hunters would take the meat, but now are too afraid to do so. Of 185 restaurants, hotels and eating stalls in Yaoundé that sold wild meat, eight elite restaurants admitted Lomié - The female vendor informant in Lomié said that selling elephant meat on command. Elephant meat was elephant meat had dropped in price per kg and that she rare or unavailable in many of the restaurants, making it could buy it for US$ 2/kg and sell it for US$ 6/kg. The difficult to obtain weights and portion sizes for restaurants. reason given was that middlemen were afraid to be in Restaurant class greatly influenced average price per possession of the meat and preferred to sell it cheaply portion and portion size. A plate ranged from US$ 2 to rather than risk losing all profit should the meat be seized 25. Elephant meat servings in restaurants were roughly in LAB operations. She took the risk in order to care for her twice as expensive as other wild meat servings due to its children. No restaurants or other vendors admitted selling rarity, indicating high demand but low and irregular supply. elephant meat in Lomié. Elephant meat vendors made a profit of approximately 90 to 100% from elephant meat sales, significantly more than Polido’o – The female vendor here runs a chop shop and the net benefit from other wild meat sales. buys a piece of elephant meat for US$ 20. She cuts it into 20 servings which she sells at US$ 2 each, making a 100% gross profit. She sells about 25 plates a day.

Daniel Stiles 55 CAR Bangui – A bus had just arrived from Ndélé when the RA Bushmeat markets and restaurants were visited in the made his first visit to PK12 market. He observed 21 pieces towns of Beya and Nola north of DSC, the regional town of elephant meat on two tables being sold, weighing a of Berberati and in Bangui. Because of severe time and total of 74 kg (average weight of 3.5 kg a piece). Elephant manpower limitations, only snapshot data were gathered, meat was much more expensive in PK12 than in south- which cannot be considered representative of what might west CAR, ranging from US$ 5.66 to 9.23/kg (mean = US$ prevail over a longer period of time. 6.97/kg). A total of 14 out of 34 restaurants located near nine markets visited served elephant meat. Even though Beya – Only restaurants were surveyed. The RA counted elephant meat was much more expensive in the market, a the number of dishes containing elephant meat as a plate of it in a restaurant was still only US$ 1. Eight other proportion of all bushmeat dishes served over a period of markets where bushmeat is sold were visited (PK9, KM5, three days, which was 6.3%. A plate cost US$ 1. Miskine, Konbamta, Gobongo, Galabadja, Fouh, and Damala), but no elephant meat was seen. Nola – RA1 observed one piece of elephant meat on each of three different days on three different tables out of 16 Hodgkinson (2009) found the average price of elephant tables selling bushmeat (156 total bushmeat pieces). meat in the town of Bayanga was US$ 3.10/kg. This value The pieces weighed an estimated 3 kg, 4 kg and 2.5 kg is comparable to the average prices found in Nola (US$ respectively. The vendors bought the meat for between 2.98/kg) and Berberati (US$ 2.93/kg) in this study. US$ 2.33/kg and US$ 2.50/kg and sold it for US$ 2.75 to US$ 3.20/kg, yielding a modest gross profit of 16- Vendors were asked at what price they purchased 18%, although the sample is so small this result should elephant meat to determine what the profit margin would be considered provisional. Only four out of 73 bushmeat be. Although the sample is small, initial results indicate dishes seen served in restaurants were elephant meat, that only in Bangui do vendors make a high margin of 5.5%, each costing US$ 1 per plate. profit on elephant meat, buying at an average of US$ 3.10/ kg and selling at an average of US$ 6.94/kg. In Nola and Berberati – Three pieces of elephant meat (5.9% of total Berberati the profit margin appears to be very slim, though 54 bushmeat pieces) weighing 3.2, 3.6 and 3.75 kg each much more research is needed. Related to this tentative on three tables out of 14 tables were observed in Berberati finding is the fact that in comparing average selling prices over four days. The buying price was US$ 2.50/kg and of different bushmeat species, only in Bangui was elephant selling price ranged from US$ 2.56 to 3.44/kg, averaging meat significantly more expensive than other bushmeat US$ 2.93/kg, yielding a gross profit margin of about 18%. species. However, in south-west CAR, Rieu (2005) found Of 57 bushmeat dishes served in restaurants, only five in 2004 that smoked elephant meat sold at significantly (8.8%) were elephant meat, at US$ 1 per plate. higher prices than other bushmeats. Large pieces (~5 kg) sold at US$ 5.12/kg and smaller pieces (~1 kg) averaged US$ 4.54/kg, more expensive than other bushmeats. The lower price in 2010 is probably explained by the fact that Sudanese poachers were flooding the market with elephant meat in the Berberati area (Anon., 2011a).

ROC Bushmeat markets were investigated in Ouesso, Pointe-Noire and Brazzaville.

Ouesso - Vendors and restaurant owners are very careful and buy protected species bushmeat directly from middlemen in their homes or wait for the merchandise at arrival points (Port de Libongo and the bus station). At the port, located on the Sangha River Only three chunks of elephant meat were found in the bank, totally protected species are hidden and sold only Berberati bushmeat market. (Photo: Linda Rieu) to people who give a predetermined password, while

56 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report unprotected species are openly displayed. There is one on their tables. In August, a second market investigation central retail market in Ouesso and two minor ones (TP found no elephant meat, even with the vendors previously and Diazi). The Port of Libongo can be considered as a identified, with one exception. The PALF director said wholesale market as it is the place where boats unload that they had just arrested a retailer in the Marché Total bushmeat, along with the bus station where middlemen who was selling a chimpanzee. PALF made the arrest arrive by public buses with bushmeat collected between the focus of media attention and the message was well Lango and Ouesso. The five markets were surveyed during disseminated, so vendors stopped selling protected 27 visits over seven days by two RAs. Seven different species. That was a very good demonstration of the elephant meat vendors were seen, with one of them selling effectiveness of law enforcement, but it resulted in skewed meat from home. data collection.

No elephant meat was seen at the Diazi or TP markets DRC in seven visits each, at the Port market, two different Only two meat vendors in Mambasa were interviewed, vendors were found selling elephant meat twice and at the one man and one woman of 39 and 36 years of age Central market, four vendors were found on four days out respectively. One reportedly sold about 60 to 80 kg of of six selling elephant meat. The average price in Ouesso elephant meat monthly, obtained mainly from Nduye, for for elephant meat from four vendors was US$ 7.99/kg, US$ 5 to 6/kg, although during periods of scarcity the price although the range was high (US$ 5.36/kg-11.11/kg). No could go as high as US$ 8/kg. The other sold only 25 kg a restaurants were visited in Ouesso. month on average, at the same prices quoted by the first vendor. Elephant meat was usually sold in large smoked Pointe-Noire – There were four wholesale markets chunks called grume. (Grand Market, Makayabou-Nkouikou, Mont Kamba and Mvou-Mvou) where retailers buy bushmeat and four retail In Kisangani, elephant meat in the Central Market sold markets (Tié-Tié, Miambazila, Mayaka and Faubourg). for US$ 35 for a 7 kg grume, or approximately US$ 5/kg, No elephant meat was found in any of them in 21 market about the same as the amount quoted in Mambasa. When visits over a week. Many vendors said they were afraid cut up into small pieces and sold in ca. 100 gm piles, a pile to sell protected wildlife meat since a well known hunter would sell for CF 500, or US$ 0.56, about US$ 5.60/kg. and elephant meat wholesaler, a DRC national, had been arrested five years previously. They also pointed out that since WCS began work in Conkouati National Park, there were more checkpoints and more arrests. The president of the bushmeat vendors association confirmed this account and added that elephant meat was still sold occasionally, but secretly. Two retailers also said that elephant meat came from Conkouati, from the border with Cabinda and from Moulenguibinza in Gabon.

Brazzaville – Twenty wholesale and retail markets were found that sold bushmeat. Elephant meat vendors were present 19 times representing 11 different individuals. Ouenzé market displayed the most elephant meat, with a total of 59 kg seen with six vendors selling it for US$ 11.06- 14.81/kg (mean = US$ 13.05/kg). ‘Total’ market had the A vendor selling grumes of elephant meat in Mambasa, next most with four vendors selling 32 kg of elephant for DRC (Photo: R. Lokoka) US$ 8.33 to 15.38/kg (mean = US$ 11.26/kg). Poto-Poto market had one vendor selling 6.9 kg at US$ 15/kg and There are at least seven markets in and around Kisangani Mikalou had one vendor selling 4.8 kg at US$ 12.12/kg. that sell elephant meat. They are: Central Market, 11th One person sold elephant meat from home for US$ 16.67/ Tshopo Market, 15th Tshopo Market, Iaté, Spiro, Kapalata kg. The overall average price was US$ 12.76/kg, the most (on the road to Buta) and 15th Market (15 km from expensive bushmeat seen. Kisangani on the road to Isangi).

During the July 2010 survey, vendors were seen regularly Much more research remains to be done on selling in Brazzaville markets with elephant meat clearly displayed elephant meat.

Daniel Stiles 57 Ivory vendors shops in both Yaoundé and Douala. Ivory working and selling has gone underground rather than disappeared in The term ‘ivory vendor’ refers to those who sell worked the principal cities of Cameroon. In one of the main shops ivory in retail outlets, which can be as informal as a in Douala, more than 100 items weighing between 0.1 to 5 pavement display to as upmarket as a luxury hotel kg each were stored and presented to potential customers. boutique. Most worked ivory in Central Africa is sold in Ivory customers in the Douala shops were roughly 60% large crafts markets. Raw ivory is not normally sold openly Chinese, 20% European and 20% African. Ivory vendors in retail outlets because law enforcement in Central African in Douala sourced their ivory directly from the south, countries pays much more attention to unworked tusks south-west and east regions. Other vendors established than to worked pieces. Tusks are traded in concealed relationships with suppliers who delivered raw ivory to their environments. The degree to which ivory is displayed workshops. varies from country to country, depending on recent law enforcement efforts. Ivory vendors were investigated in No ivory was found in Douala at the art market or in hotels. Cameroon, ROC and DRC in this study, but not in CAR Certainly, the amount of ivory being worked and sold today due to time constraints. in Yaoundé and Douala would be a small fraction of that seen by Martin & Stiles (2000) in 1999. Cameroon In Yaoundé the Centre Artisanat, or arts market, is located The small amount of ivory being consumed by the local in the suburb of Tsinga. No ivory was displayed openly, market in conjunction with evidence for relatively important although there were worked bone items resembling ivory. quantities of tusks being produced from poaching in In 27 kiosks selling tourist knick-knacks, when asked, the south-east, and illicitly imported from neighbouring nine vendors revealed a few pieces of worked ivory countries, strongly suggests that most tusks are being hidden under shelves in sacks. In all, 88 pieces of ivory exported. In fact, a tonne of raw ivory was seized in Douala were brought out and shown to the project consultant. in September 2009 being readied for export. The ivory A 20-cm figurine on a tusk started at US$ 300, a 15-cm was thought to originate in Cameroon and Gabon and figurine started at US$ 200. The prices could be reduced was assembled by an organized network of smugglers by bargaining. There were a pair of poorly carved 38-cm that included Cameroonian government officials (LAGA, tusks, polished tusk tips sold as paper weights, some 2009). LAGA also tracked down a container with a false poorly made bangles, thin figurines, bead necklaces and compartment that had been used to smuggle tusks to other mostly poorly worked jewellery items and figurines. Hong Kong. DNA analysis of tusks seized in Hong Kong Except for the two fairly attractive figurines priced above, proved they had originated in Cameroon and Gabon the pieces looked like they had not sold because of their (Wasser, et al., 2008). Ofir Drori, director of LAGA, has low quality, suggesting that better made replacements reported the arrests of several ivory traffickers and seizure were not being supplied. The vendors said that no ivory of tusks and worked pieces (e.g. LAGA, 2009, 2010), was being worked currently in Yaoundé because of recent which has driven traders underground. crackdowns. One vendor from Foumban, which is in the north-west of Cameroon, said that ivory was still being ROC worked there. He said he had four additional ivory items The only handicraft market in Brazzaville, located next at his home in Yaoundé. No ivory was found in any of the to the Marché du Plateau, was visited several times to hotel boutiques or at the airport. look for prohibited animal products in general and ivory in particular. Only three bracelets made of elephant hair and In the Briqueterie neighbourhood three ivory workshops a necklace with three ivory beads were found. The vendor were found, one of which had worked ivory at the time of refused to provide information about ivory and pretended the visit (July 2010), including rings, bangles and small that he was not the owner of the shop. No other ivory was animal carved objects. observed, although it is possibly kept hidden, unless a customer requests it. In Douala, four ivory workshops and showrooms of worked ivory were found in Aqua, the economic centre of town, in In Pointe-Noire at the Marché des Voiliers, the largest Bonanjo, the administrative centre, and near the airport. handicraft market in the city, elephant hair bracelets were At least 10 additional transient shops were also identified displayed on tables. When requested, vendors brought with worked ivory. These shops would open and close out some small ivory objects hidden under the tables. On their ivory operation based on perceived threats from a second visit to the market, one table was found with 38 MINFOF law enforcers, who reportedly regularly raided small pendants, three rings, two bracelets, two combs,

58 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report seven small elephant figurines and three small human and the most expensive item was a genuinely old side- figurines. The starting price for three 6-8 cm elephants was blown horn made from a tusk, priced at US$ 150. Most of US$ 50. The pieces were very poorly worked. The ivory the pieces had been manufactured in the last few years. comes from the Kouilou region to the north of Pointe-Noire Vendors said that local Chinese residents ordered them to (Conkouati and Ntié-tié), the Niari region and Cabinda. make signature seals and chopsticks and they paid US$ Traffickers are Malaysian, Senegalese, Malian and from 50 on average for a 6 x 2 cm seal and US$ 25 for a pair of DRC. A jeweller was found selling ivory beads that were chopsticks. None of these types were displayed at the time about 2 cm in diameter for US$ 16 each, an extremely high of the visits. price. Three ivory and wood-working workshops were located No worked ivory was found in Ouesso, where there are on the premises of the kiosks that sold ivory and other very few tourists and no handicraft markets or shops. crafts items. One carver-vendor said that he worked at home. There were perhaps ten carvers in all. None of DRC them were working ivory at the time of the survey as they No retail ivory vendors exist around the OFR as there are said no affordable raw ivory was available. They seemed too few potential buyers. Four retail outlets were found in quite pessimistic about the future of the ivory business in Kisangani that sold worked ivory, three of them in a suburb Kisangani, unless tusk availability increased and prices called 3rd Tshopo on the road leading to Buta. The fourth came down. was on the terrace of the Riviera Hotel, where the carvers and vendors from 3rd Tshopo congregated to try and Chinese, Russians, Belgians and American soldiers in sell their wares to tourists, development aid workers and that order were the main buyers of ivory. The U.S. army visiting businessmen. A total of 377 ivory items were seen, has established a base near the airport to train a rapid consisting mainly of jewellery (291 pieces) and figurines or intervention force of Congolese soldiers. Some of them carved tusks (57 pieces). The starting prices were very low stay at a hotel in the city and occasionally they buy ivory.

Large quantities of worked ivory were displayed with impunity in Kisangani. (Photo: Dan Stiles)

Daniel Stiles 59 Consumers even larger price gap between the selling price of elephant meat in bushmeat markets (US$ 14.17/kg) and that of Samples of people who eat elephant meat were other more commonly consumed bushmeats in bushmeat markets (US$ 5.50/kg). interviewed in towns and cities in Cameroon, CAR and ROC with the aim of assessing the demand and ROC preference for elephant compared to other meats. Time One hundred and fifty consumers were interviewed in was not available for a consumer survey in DRC. Brazzaville and 207 in Pointe-Noire. Every section of each city and each socio-economic category was sampled to Cameroon obtain a representative cross-section of the population. Elephant meat is reserved for select consumers as it usually costs more than any other meat in markets or on Brazzaville - Bushmeat is eaten by all of the sampled the menu in restaurants. Restaurant owners in Yaoundé consumers, with a more frequent consumption by men, but stated that predominately elite Cameroonian business 31% of men and 57% of women had never eaten elephant people and government officials as well as white foreigners meat. When asked why, over half replied that it was consumed elephant meat. Given the secretive nature of because of a lack of availability and over a third said that its provisioning and sale, many customers who consume it was for cultural or religious reasons. Only 10% said that elephant meat have personal relationships with the it was because of taste. No one said that it was because restaurant owner. The restaurant owner alerts regular of price or respect for the law. About 24% of men and 6% customers of the arrival of elephant meat. It is a high status of women said that they ate elephant meat on a regular meat, served at special occasions. The price comparisons basis. Among Brazzaville people who do eat elephant with other meats in Table 9 demonstrate that consumers meat: are willing to pay more for elephant than for other meats. • 57.6% eat it in town, 35.3% in the bush and 7.1% in Elephant meat appears to be more expensive than other town and in the bush; meats in Cameroon at the rural, regional and city levels. • 63.1% buy the meat, 36.9% receive it as a gift from family or friends; CAR • 88.8% like eating this meat for its taste and 11.3% for In 2010 prices for elephant meat averaged around 3/kg in a cultural reason. Nola and Berberati, although the samples were extremely small, and these prices were within the range of other Twenty-five restaurants were visited 32 times in total bushmeats, suggesting that there was no preference in Brazzaville. None of them had elephant meat or any other protected species meat on the menu. Most of them for elephant. In Bayanga, south of Nola, Hodgkinson declared that protected species had to be ordered in (2009) found that although elephant meat proved to be advance, as it was too expensive to keep in stock. Only the most popular option amongst the protected species two of them said they could serve elephant meat on (81% of respondents saying they would eat it if offered command. in comparison to only 56% who would eat gorilla), other wild meat (fish, duiker, small monkey) and some domestic Pointe-Noire – Quite a substantial proportion of the meats (beef and chicken) were preferred to elephant meat. sample of men (77%) and women (80%) have never eaten Rieu, et al. (2007), however, stated that elephant meat, elephant meat. Again, lack of availability was the main along with gorilla and chimpanzee meat, was equal in answer, but for only a third (33%) of the sample. Other price or more expensive than other meats in south-west frequent reasons were taste (27%) and culture/religion CAR and that it had a certain attraction for the wealthier (24%). Less than 3% of men and 1% of women said that segment of the population for cultural reasons. It is they consumed elephant meat on a regular basis. Among believed by some to have medical or magical properties Pointe-Noire elephant meat-eaters: that benefit the consumer. • 36.4% eat it in town, 45.5% in the bush and 18.2% in In Bangui the price paid for elephant meat in bushmeat town and in the bush; markets (US$ 6.94/kg) was considerably higher than the • 56.8% buy the meat, 43.2% receive it as a gift from average price of other bushmeat (US$ 3.86/kg). This family or friends; suggests that there is a consumer class that is willing to • 72.7% like eating this meat for its taste, 13.6% for pay more for elephant meat in the capital city. This finding religious/cultural reasons, 11.4% have no particular was also corroborated by Fargeot (2008) who found an reason and 2.3% for health.

60 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Although prices of other meats were not collected, the to the working and trading of ivory. In three of the four high average price of elephant meat in Ouesso (US$ countries (ROC excepted), current law allows for certain 7.99/kg) and Brazzaville (US$ 12.76/kg) suggest that it is circumstances under which ivory can be worked and more expensive than other meats and therefore high in sold. In principle, it is possible to obtain a certificate of preference and demand. origin for legally obtained tusks and to work and sell the ivory under license. There are stringent articles under DRC the respective national laws for marking and keeping In north-eastern DRC, elephant meat seems to be more records of the ivory. Law enforcement officials and those expensive than other bushmeats and dried fish in the who attempt working and trading in ivory, however, do rural area and in Kisangani, but similar in price to beef not seem to be conversant with the details of these laws. and whole fish in Kisangani (Table 9). There was no time Recent crackdowns in Cameroon, CAR and ROC on ivory

Table 9. Average retail price of wild and domesticated meats, US$/kg

Country Locality Elephant Duiker Monkey Beef Chicken Fish Cameroon Ngato/Lomie 3.33-6 1 1.50 - - - Yokadouma 7.67 2.25 3.25 4.40 6.67 2 Bertoua 10 3 4.50 3.90 8 1.80 Yaoundé 7.50-13 3.20 5 5.29 5.36-8 1.60 CAR Nola 2.97 2.79 3.21 - - - Berberati 2.93* 3.26 3.13 - - - Bangui 6.94 4.43 4.67 3.34 5 - DRC Mambasa 5 2.20 2.20 - - 1.50 Bafwasende - 3 2.50 - - 2.08 Kisangani 5.50 2.02 3.36 6 3.60 4.95

* In 2004, Rieu (2005) documented an average price of US$ 4.83/kg for smoked elephant meat and US$ 4.08/kg for elephant trunk in Berberati (at 1 US$ = 540 FCFA). available to carry out consumer surveys, but on price traffickers have forced the industry underground (Clynes, alone, elephant meat appears to be relatively high in 2010; Wilkins, 2010; WWF, 2010; see reports on www. preference and demand compared to other meats. LAGA-enforcement.org). Only in DRC is worked ivory displayed openly in any quantity. Informants in Kisangani Prices believed that ivory, once worked, became legal.

Prices were collected on other bushmeats and In spite of knowledge of the law, many rural people domesticated animal meats to compare to elephant meat, because of poverty feel impelled to take the risk to hunt except in ROC. It is assumed that there is a degree of elephants illegally and sell or supply their products. Others, relationship between price and level of demand and who are relatively wealthy and/or powerful individuals – preference, the higher the price, the greater the demand even those in government or the military– actually incite and preference. Table 9 presents the results. elephant poaching out of greed. These commanditaires order elephant hunts and provide money, weapons, Knowledge and observance of laws ammunition and goods to poachers in return for tusks. In all of the case study research sites, informants seemed very aware that elephants were a protected species and Analysis of ETIS data suggested that organized crime was that it was illegal to kill elephants and trade in its products. involved in ivory smuggling in Cameroon and DRC, based Most hunters, middlemen and vendors of elephant meat on the number of large-scale ivory seizures involving these and ivory had been arrested previously, fined, beaten and/ countries. In addition, all four countries in this study were or imprisoned, or at least knew someone who had been perceived to have very low law enforcement efficiency and for breaking the laws related to elephants. The only area high rates of corruption related to ivory trade (Milliken, et of ambiguity or misunderstanding seemed to be related al., 2009; CITES, 2010b).

Daniel Stiles 61 Discussion

Due to the short period of time available for field work supplemental products included elephant tails, trunks, and the sensitive nature of the research subject matter, skin and other parts and non-elephant bushmeat, skins, the number of informants that could be found willing to etc. This mostly in-kind payment to hunting parties was answer questions was relatively few. The four MIKE case sufficient, as the participants did not have to make any study sites are also located in remote areas where roads investment in capital, only their time. The recompense are poor, transport is difficult, communications are almost in meat to feed their families and surplus to sell was a non-existent and lodging is deficient. These logistical welcome windfall to poverty-stricken rural inhabitants. constraints also limited the data collection. In spite of the difficulties, the initial information that was collected at least The OKNP area hunters in ROC differed significantly offers tantalizing insights into the motivations that drive from the other hunters in that only 36% hunted for elephant poaching, the actors who are involved in illegal commanditaires to obtain ivory, while 64% reported hunting killing and trade and the operations of the social networks for themselves, 100% of those primarily motivated by ivory. and commodity chains in the case study areas. The reason for the apparent difference between ROC The most knowledgeable informants relevant to hunting elephant hunters and the others cannot at present be elephants are those who organize and lead the hunting ascertained, but it is hypothesized that two factors might party. These are commercial hunters that specialize explain the difference: (1) elephant numbers and density in elephants. All those interviewed had several years are higher in OKNP than in the other MIKE sites, hence of experience in hunting elephants and had extensive successfully hunting elephants may require less effort and knowledge of the forest areas where they habitually (2) many hunters around the OKNP own AK-47s and thus hunted. They knew the paths and waterways that could do not need a commanditaire to provide a weapon. AK-47 lead them to prime hunting spots, usually clearings where ammunition is very cheap compared to large-bore hunting water and mineral salts could be found, favoured gathering rifles. spots for elephants and other large game such as buffalos and antelopes. The hunting party is usually also made up There appear to be certain differences between hunting of one or two knowledgeable trackers, often Pygmies, and parties that aim primarily for meat and those that target ‘assistant hunters’, who were usually family and friends of ivory. Differences in variables between middlemen and the lead hunter. These people also acted as porters. The vendors of these two commodities increase the further lead hunters always killed elephants with firearms, which down the commodity chain one travels. can be classified into three types: (1) small-bore military automatic rifles (e.g. AK-47), (2) large-bore hunting rifles (e.g. .458, 10.75) and (3) 12-gauge shotguns with home- Elephant Meat made bullets. Pygmies in Cameroon, south-west CAR and northern ROC were also identified as elephant hunters, Meat was the primary motivation for killing elephants for but not as leaders of the hunting party. The latter were three of the 51 hunters responding (6% of the sample). It invariably non-Pygmy, although with more research Pygmy was the second most important motivation after ivory for lead hunters may be identified. In the OFR area of DRC, 41 (80%) of the other hunters, meaning that for more than no Pygmies were found who shoot elephants, but they 86% of the hunters, meat was an important motivation for often accompanied a hunting party as trackers and porters. killing elephants. In two of the cases in which meat was the primary motivation (Cameroon and DRC), the hunting In the Cameroon, CAR and DRC case studies, 82% parties were the largest reported in their respective sample of the hunters stated that their elephant hunting was and they stayed out for periods longer than all but one of driven by commanditaires ordering the hunt, with ivory the hunts (15 days in Cameroon and 21 days in DRC). In being the main objective. The commanditaires provided CAR the primarily meat hunt was about average in terms weapons, ammunition, basic foodstuffs and other goods of hunting party number and period. These results suggest and remunerated the successful hunting party with a little that hunts that aim primarily for meat could be significantly money (to the lead hunter), and by allowing them to keep larger and longer than those aiming for ivory, although all meat and other products obtained on the hunt. The further research is needed to test the hypothesis.

62 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report All of the hunters who said they hunted primarily for meat bribe their way clear, although some or all of the meat were self-motivated; none were commanded to do so. All could be confiscated. of the hunters who said that they were commanded to hunt for meat as a secondary motivation were also commanded The very low price of elephant meat servings in many to hunt for ivory. In the total sample of hunters, none was restaurants (US$ 1-2) seems contradictory when market ordered to hunt elephants for meat alone. In over 85% of prices were high. It can possibly be explained by the the reported elephant hunts, some meat was carried away. fact that smoked elephant meat appears to expand by Very little meat was carried away fresh; it was almost rehydration when cooked with liquid. Observations made always carried away smoked. The presence of smoking in south-west CAR suggested that 100 g dry put into a racks at a kill site would indicate that meat was either a stew expanded to about 300 g, although more research is primary or secondary motivation for killing the elephant. needed on the question. Hunters sometimes sell the meat themselves directly to consumers, although in most instances they sell to The consumer surveys provided initial data that strongly middlemen. suggested that elephant meat was in fairly high demand, but in short supply. This was reflected in price, where All meat hunters and transporters interviewed were male. elephant meat was amongst the most expensive The genders of meat middlemen are shown in Table 10. everywhere surveyed, except in south-west CAR in 2010 It would appear that both males and females can act as (in 2004 elephant was the most expensive (Rieu, 2005)). middlemen in the meat trade, but a larger sample might Potential earnings by hunters from meat are therefore very reveal a more nuanced pattern. Over 90% of elephant high, but this economic potential does not appear to be meat market vendors were female. realized, except in a few isolated cases. In 13% to 45% of hunts in three of the four case studies, no meat at all Table 10. Gender of meat and ivory middlemen

Country Meat Only Meat + Ivory Ivory Only Male Female Male Female Male Female Cameroon 2 2 0 0 4 0 CAR 2 4 0 3 0 0 ROC 9 5 - - - - DRC 0 1 2 0 2 0 Total 13 12 2 3 6 0

The potential earnings from elephant meat were very high. was taken. In cases where meat was taken, it was often Prices at the hunter level varied from US$ 1 to US$ 5.55/ less than 50% of the meat available. Based on informants, kg, with an average of roughly US$ 2.80/kg, although the there appear to be two main explanations for this pattern: sample data are not complete enough to derive an exact figure. An average adult forest elephant could probably 1. Logistics – Elephants are usually killed far from provide 1,000 kg of smoked meat, which would on average roads. A porter can carry a load of 30-50 kg on foot, gross the hunters well over US$ 2,500. Other parts of the depending on the porter’s strength, terrain and animal would increase the income. distance. Transporting 1,000 kg of elephant meat would require an absolute minimum of 20 porters, not More research needs to be conducted before middlemen even taking into consideration tusks, other products and vendor profits from elephant meat can be determined, of the hunt, weapons, etc. Often more than one but earnings seem to vary greatly. Transporting elephant elephant is killed on a hunt. It simply is rarely feasible and other protected meats from forest areas to urban to have the manpower necessary to carry out all of markets posed a relatively high degree of risk, as did the available meat. selling these meats in the marketplace and in restaurants. Based on informant responses, fear of being apprehended 2. Security – a.) Elephant meat needs to be smoked by the authorities was greatest in Cameroon, followed in to preserve it for market and to reduce the carrying order by ROC, CAR and lastly DRC. Only in Cameroon weight. The time needed to stay in one spot while was seizure of the meat and arrest a possibility; in the smoke is billowing into the air raises the probability other case studies, informants indicated that they could of detection by the authorities. Many hunters are not

Daniel Stiles 63 An elephant carcass in Dzanga bai with tusks removed Ivory and chunks of meat hacked out (Photo: WWF)

willing to take the risk. b.) Anti-poaching programmes Ivory trading is not a new phenomenon to the Congo have enlisted informants in hunting areas to alert Basin. Little is known about the history of ivory carving wildlife authorities about illegal hunting and trafficking in the sub-region, but when the Portuguese first arrived of protected species. The larger the hunting party, on the west coast of Cameroon and in the Congo in the the greater the probability that one of them could early 16th century, they found rich artistic traditions of be an informer. For this reason, hunting parties in sculpture, mostly in wood, although including small ivory Cameroon and ROC at least are becoming smaller fertility and fetish figurines, ancestor images, amulets (see Table 3); hence less meat can be carried. and larger side-blown horns. The Portuguese and later the Belgians and French stimulated Central African The initial information from this study suggests ivory carving by their interest in acquiring ivory pieces. that logistical difficulties and security concerns Craftsmen began producing carved tusks, figurines and constrain elephant poaching for meat. Consumer busts, Christian religious objects and more utilitarian demand exists that could drive increased illegal items such as salt cellars, utensil handles and so on. It elephant killing for meat if either one or both of is speculated that increased ivory carving activity was these constraints were to be mitigated. facilitated by the invention or borrowing of new types of tools (Meauzé, 1968; Woodhouse, 1976; Grönig & Sellar, 1999). By the late 1880s, Central Africa was producing high quality ivory sculpture, as in the photo of the carved tusk from the Loango Coast of ROC (Edwards, 2008).

By the end of the 19th century, Europe was importing thousands of tonnes of African tusks every year, clearly an unsustainable quantity, which resulted in steep price rises for the ‘white gold’ (Milner-Gulland & Beddington, 1993; Spinage, 1994; Meredith, 2001; Walker, 2009). Except for the coastal strip, the Congo Basin

64 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report remained largely unknown to the outside world and little under the auspices of the IUCN AfESG, published the raw ivory was obtained from the region until the 19th results of a continent-wide survey of the ivory trade in century. Based on an estimation of carrying capacity Africa (Cobb, 1989). The purpose was to gather together and surface area, Milner-Gulland & Beddington (1993) sufficient data on the trade to allow the Parties to CITES ventured that there were 1.4 million forest elephants in to make an informed decision on whether to instigate a 1814 in the Congo Basin. In the late 19th and early 20th moratorium on the international trade in ivory. Part of the centuries with European colonization (and personal ITRG’s work was to review how much raw ivory had been ownership, in the case of the Congo by King Leopold of exported in the decade prior to 1989. Table 11 shows the Belgium), administration was put in place, roads were built, results for the four countries in this study. towns and Christian missionary stations were established De Meulenaer and Meredith (1989) stated that the single and river traffic was developed, all of which resulted in Table 11. Estimates of ivory exported from case study a great increase in the exploitation of natural resources, countries, 1979-1988 including ivory. Country Cameroon CAR ROC DRC Total Figure 6 shows an estimate of the volume of ivory Tonnes 36.7 1,097.9 954.7 704.9 2,794 exported from four Central African countries between 1891 Source: Cobb, 1989. and 1988, although there are no data for the period 1948- 1965 (Barnes, 1996). most important source of ivory in Africa for the two decades preceding 1989 was the DRC. The massive decline of the elephant population since then would suggest this trend has continued. Of the 2,648 tonnes of raw ivory that were exported from the DRC, approximately 73% of this was undeclared and illegal, much of it smuggled to the ROC, CAR, Burundi and Uganda for onward export. This amount constituted an estimated 36% of all raw ivory that was exported from Africa in this 10-year period. Export records indicate that only 704.9 tonnes were exported.

The ITRG concluded that ‘Cameroon has a significant position in international ivory trading in western and Figure 6. The volume of ivory exported from Central Af- central Africa.’ They found that Cameroon acted as an rican Republic, Congo, Gabon, and Chad between 1891 entrepôt for tusks smuggled in from neighbouring countries and 1988 (Source: Barnes, 1996) and exported to Nigeria, Europe, the Middle East and Asia (Cobb, 1989). Cameroon’s ivory export records for Note the huge jump in exports beginning in the 1970s. In the decade preceding the CITES ivory trade ban are the 1970s and 1980s economic development, particularly incomplete, but importing countries record receiving 36.7 in ivoryphilic Asia, was driving quickly rising demand for tonnes of tusks between 1979 and 1988, a relatively small ivory and increases in price, which in turn caused an quantity compared to other African countries. It is likely that upsurge in elephant poaching, as legal supplies could much more than this was smuggled out and therefore not not satisfy demand (Barbier, et al., 1990). Poaching in the records (Cobb, 1989). became particularly rife in Central African nations, where governmental institutions were weak and corruption was The CAR was not surveyed in the ITRG study, but Figure high (Milner-Gulland & Beddington, 1993; Meredith, 2001). 6 indicates that it also experienced a great rise in ivory The estimated Congo Basin elephant population had exports during the 1970s and 1980s. Cobb (1989) stated fallen by some estimates from 1.4 million in 1814 to only that 1,097,900 kg of ivory was exported 1979-1988. 172,400 in 1989 (Barnes, et al., 1995). The 1989 number was thought to be about one-third of the continent’s total Importing countries declared receiving 954.7 tonnes estimated elephant population, which some assessments of raw ivory in the decade 1979-1988 from ROC, the put at an approximately 50% reduction since 1979 fourth largest quantity on the continent (Luxmoore, et al., (Douglas-Hamilton, et al., 1992; Michelmore, et al., 1994), 1989). Meredith (1989) points out, however, that some although the figure has been contested. of this originated in the DRC. Meredith (1989) stated In 1989 the Ivory Trade Review Group (ITRG), working that investigations indicated that high-ranking personnel

Daniel Stiles 65 were involved in illegal ivory exports. Large quantities of Table 12. Frequency and weights of ivory seized, 1989 ivory were smuggled out of northern ROC to the CAR or to early 2010 overseas via the Brazzaville airport ‘by well organized gangs’, facilitated by government officials. Frequency Total weight seized Country In Out Kg The total volume of exported ivory from the four case study Cameroon 65 238 17,681 countries was almost 2,800 tonnes between 1979 and CAR 6 41 1,839 1988. Since only larger tusk sizes were usually exported, ROC 7 119 2,852 the average tusk weight was probably somewhere in the DRC 6 398 15,562 vicinity of 10 kg, which would mean the exported ivory Total 84 796 37,934 represented the deaths of more than 150,000 elephants over ten years from these four countries alone. Source: CITES, 2010b

The ITRG found an active local ivory industry operating in Cameroon, ROC and DRC in 1989, with virtually no flows are currently a major problem in these four countries. government regulation controlling the origin of the raw This situation holds as well as for the other three Central ivory used or exports of worked pieces. Several thousand African countries (Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad). ivory carvers were working throughout the Congo Basin These totals underrepresent the real flows of ivory out of and ivory factories aimed at supplying local and foreign these countries, as many shipments successfully reach demand were established in the 1980s in ROC and DRC their destination (CITES, 2010b). with Chinese investment (Cobb, 1989). This local industry caused the deaths of an unknown additional number of An ivory market survey to assess the impacts of the CITES elephants. ivory trade ban in Africa was carried out in 1999 (Martin & Stiles, 2000) and a broader analysis of the trade ban The combination of the impacts of ivory exports, both legal was made in 2004 (Stiles, 2004). These studies included and illegal, and local ivory industries largely explains the Central African countries. The 1999 survey and 2004 great decline in Central African elephant populations in analysis concluded that ivory market scale and activity the two decades preceding the CITES international ivory had declined considerably after 1989 in Central Africa. trade ban, although a reduction of habitat due to human Where comparable data were available, raw ivory prices encroachment contributed to it as well (Parker & Graham, had dropped, the estimated weight of worked ivory seen 1989, 1990; Barnes, 1996). Other factors affecting for sale was less and the number of retail outlets selling elephant population decline were sport hunting and hunting worked ivory, carvers and workshops had all decreased. for meat, but their impact relative to ivory are unknown The main cause was the drop in consumer demand for (Barnes, 1996). ivory in Japan, Europe and the USA resulting from the negative publicity associated with buying ivory generated From the time of the ivory trade ban, which came into by the CITES trade ban, and the effectiveness of the effect in most countries in 1990, Central Africa has ban itself. There was still little problem in smuggling ivory continued to be active in smuggling ivory out of the out, but getting it into Western countries and Japan had subregion, as an ETIS analysis of ivory seizures has become more difficult. demonstrated. Table 12 shows the number of seizure cases and total weights of ivory involved recorded by ETIS Ivory carvers and vendors in Central Africa stated in 1999 (Milliken, et al., 2009; CITES, 2010b). that local domestic markets were moribund, but they were still functioning. Central Africa remained one of the main Table 12 clearly illustrates that the countries themselves sources for raw and worked ivory exported to West Africa have done little since the CITES ivory trade ban to police and Angola and of raw ivory to Sudan, Egypt and eastern illegal ivory exports. CAR, ROC and DRC have reported Asia, China in particular. Cameroon was still an important only a handful of ivory seizures in their countries in over entrepôt for the onward trafficking of tusks from other 20 years. Overall, 880 cases of ivory seizures have been Central African countries (Martin & Stiles, 2000). reported, over 90% made outside of the country of origin. Almost 38 tonnes of ivory have been seized originating in In 2010 the present study paid little attention to the ivory the four countries. The ETIS analysis also found that over markets, but raw ivory prices obtained seem to suggest 61% of the ivory seizures by weight has occurred in the that demand in relation to supply has risen moderately recent period since 1999, indicating that illicit ivory trade since 1999, but it is still lower than in 1989. Figure 7

66 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report presents the trend in prices for tusks over 10 kg in weight in 2010, they could get US$ 60/kg. In towns around the in three of the countries, based on prices collected in OFR, hunters said that average tusk prices for all sizes Yaoundé, Bangui and Kinshasa. Prices were not collected had risen from US$ 15/kg in 2000-2005 to over US$ 30/ in Brazzaville. The price spreads were averaged and the kg in 2010. Amboya (2004) reported even lower prices for GDP Inflator Index was applied to the 1989 and 1999 the OFR area in late 2004, with an average of US$ 12/kg prices to make them equivalent to the 2010 price (http:// for all size tusks. Around OKNP, >10 kg tusks earned the cost.jsc.nasa.gov/inflateGDP.html). hunter an average of US$ 24/kg (adjusted for inflation) in 1996 (Vanwijnsberghe, 1996) and in 2010 they obtained an Preliminary information gathered in Yaoundé, Douala, average of US$ 31/kg. Brazzaville and Kisangani suggests that the number of retail outlets, ivory objects for sale and carvers are Hunters explained higher prices as due either to greater significantly below those seen in 1989 and moderately risk or to increased demand, often from East Asian buyers below those seen in 1999. An assessment of the Bikeko in Central African urban centres. The average size of market in Kinshasa in May 2009 by TRAFFIC found 2,650 hunting parties had been decreasing in Cameroon and ivory items weighing some 345 kg openly displayed for ROC because of risk, which caused hunters to concentrate sale with no apparent evidence of any effective control more on ivory and bring back less meat than they would (Milliken, et al., 2009). In 1999, Martin & Stiles (2000) have liked due to a lack of transport manpower. Informants knew of East Asian ivory buyers in Yaoundé, Brazzaville and Kisangani. In Brazzaville, the Asian buyer was based in Kinshasa, just across the Congo River.

Figure 7. Inflation-adjusted average prices in US$ for >10 kg weight tusks in Cameroon, CAR and DRC 1989-2010 (Sources: Cobb, 1989; Martin & Stiles, 2000; this study) found 3,324 ivory pieces displayed in the Bikeko market estimated to weigh 285 kg. The number of pieces were fewer by 20% in 2009, but the weight had increased by 17%, suggesting that the average weight of ivory objects In 1999 the Bikeko ivory market in Kinshasa had 26 had increased. Twenty six tables sold ivory in Bikeko in tables displaying 3,324 pieces of ivory. In 2009, the 1999, but Milliken, et al. (2009) did not report the number. number on display had dropped to 2,650, but the The scale of the ivory market does not appear to have average size per piece had increased. Market scale been significantly different in 2009 than in 1999. was largely unchanged (Photo: Dan Stiles)

In Cameroon and ROC worked ivory openly displayed and Ivory brings in much more return than meat in terms of ivory workshops had gone largely underground since 1999. unit weight. For example, a four-man transport load of The two were still in the open in DRC, and no information 200 kg of ivory could bring the hunter or commanditaire on market scale or openness is available for CAR in 1989 US$ 10,000 at US$ 50/kg, while the same load of meat or in 2010. would return only a maximum of US$ 500. This fact largely explains why poaching networks concentrate on ivory. Although hard data are scanty, hunters and middlemen in this study reported that tusk prices have been rising Figure 8 shows the total earnings that could be made in recent years, which increases motivation to hunt from meat and ivory from a small, medium and large elephants. For example, hunters around BBNP stated that sized elephant respectively, based on average prices for in 2005, they received US$ 36/kg for >10 kg tusks and elephant meat and ivory obtained in this study, assuming

Daniel Stiles 67 all meat and both tusks were taken. A small elephant such as guides, porters, longer distance transporters and of juvenile age could yield US$ 1,216, a medium size facilitators (e.g. government or military collaborators). To elephant (adult forest elephant) could provide US$ 4,640 tackle the problem of illegal elephant killing and trade of its and a large elephant (adult savannah elephant) could products, the actors in these networks must be identified, deliver US$ 14,000 into the hands of the hunter or his and then the key figures dealt with in the most effective commanditaire. The elephant is no doubt the most lucrative way possible in the circumstances. animal in Africa to hunt, after the adult rhinoceros. There will be somewhat different social networks involved Most elephant hunters are subsidized by commanditaires, in each hunt, but the main actors often remain the same which is an additional motivation to hunt elephants, as over a period of time, particularly the lead hunters, investment costs for hunters are low. Many hunters hunt commanditaires and other middlemen. It was not possible during the rainy season when alternative agricultural to identify a full network of actors in the time available, but work is lacking. When asked what might cause them to schematic representations can be proposed of what such stop hunting elephants, many hunters and middlemen networks would look like for both meat and ivory trading. responded that they would be willing to quit if alternative These are presented in Figures 9 and 10. The relative employment could be found. significance of the actor is indicated by the size of the node and the importance of the relationship by the thickness of CITES Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev. CoP15) ‘Trade in the line connecting them. elephant specimens’ and CITES Decision 13.26 (Rev. CoP14) ‘Action plan for the control of trade in elephant The elephant meat social network begins naturally enough ivory’ both call for CITES parties to regulate their domestic with the hunter (H), who is immediately associated with ivory markets and to combat elephant poaching and illegal co-hunters, guides and porters. Once the elephant is ivory trade. The four countries in this study have shown killed, butchered and the meat smoked, the hunter may little progress in implementing these CITES appeals. come into contact with local meat vendors (LV), who in turn sell the meat to local consumers (LC). The hunter and those around him will also consume a portion of the meat. Depending on circumstances and the amount of meat carried away, the hunter may sell a portion of the meat to a middleman (M). Some of this meat might be given to regional (i.e. rural) authorities (RA) such as village chiefs, local police or ecoguards to co-op their complicity in the illegal trade. In the case of hunters who are primarily after ivory and working for a commanditaire, some meat (the trunk and liver were specifically mentioned) will be given. The middleman, possibly assisted by transporters, will then sell the meat on to other middlemen or vendors/restaurants (UV/R) in towns, who in turn sell to the consumer (UC). Local authorities (LA) may also receive meat in the form of Figure 8. Potential earnings from meat and ‘gifts’ or ‘tariffs’ or, if the relationship is antagonistic, it is the ivory from different sized elephants LA who seizes the meat and possibly arrests the actor.

Social Networks and Figure 10 pertains to hunting parties that are only targeting tusks, and not commercial meat. Fresh meat or Commodity Chains organs might be eaten at the kill site, but meat will not be smoked nor smoked meat carried away, explaining the It is important to determine the social networks that hypothesized more restricted number of actors associated operate in the illegal hunting and trading of elephant with the hunter. The middleman or urban middleman products if policies and actions are to be devised to was – in 86% of the cases in Cameroon, CAR and DRC address the problem. It is people who trade commodities combined – also the commanditaire. In cases involving a through a chain from the producer (hunter, in this case) commanditaire, the relationship with the hunter involved to the middleman (which could be several along the reciprocity. Guns, ammunition, food, money, etc. moved way) to the retail vendors and to final consumer. There from M/UM to the H and ivory returned from the H to are also other actors involved with the primary actors, the M/UM. In cases in which hunters were working for

68 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Figure 9. Elephant meat social network example

themselves, the hunters sold tusks, and possibly other operations, or they were such figures themselves and trophy items (e.g. tails, skin), to middlemen. No hunters used subordinates to assist them. In some cases, raw in the four samples sold directly to urban or international ivory was transformed into worked ivory by the M or UM, middlemen. who in these instances were in fact ivory craftsmen or workshop owners. Worked ivory that is produced in rural Rural middlemen (M) and town/city middlemen (UM) often areas is not sold to consumers there, but is transported had collaborative relationships with government (G) or and sold to urban middlemen (UM) or vendors (UV), who law enforcement/military (LA) figures to facilitate their sell it on to local residents (LC) or foreign visitors (IC). The

Daniel Stiles 69 Figure 10. Ivory social network example

raw ivory that is not used in local manufacturing, which is hypothesized to be the majority, sometimes along with Two main differences between the networks for elephant worked ivory, is sold to middlemen who have connections meat and ivory are the number of associates linked to the in foreign countries (IM). They smuggle it out to other respective hunters – there are more with the meat hunter – African countries and/or to eastern Asia, Europe or North and the international actors connected to the ivory network. America to foreign IMs based abroad (Milliken, et al., 2009; Not enough is known at present about the international TRAFFIC, 2010b). aspect of the elephant meat trade to create an international

70 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report node. (2006) present two examples of studies that utilized a A hypothesis to test is that most of the meat is disposed commodity chain approach to the study and analysis of of by the hunter (H) and first middleman (M) to either local bushmeat marketing. The latter study is very relevant to consumers (LC) or urban vendors (UV). If this is the case, the situation in the Congo Basin, particularly in the north- it would necessitate aiming strategies and actions early on eastern DRC, as it centred on Garamba National Park, in the network chain, i.e. at the hunter and first middleman, located only 200 km from the OFR. They investigated to control the meat trade, as this is the point at which most the effects of armed conflict on bushmeat hunting and of the meat is concentrated. Beyond those two actors trade at the village and urban levels of protected versus the minority proportion of elephant meat becomes highly unprotected species. They found that the trade in protected dispersed and therefore more difficult to control. Meat species, such as elephant meat, was very rare at the trading networks seem to be composed primarily of local village level regardless of peace or war conditions. This nationals of the countries in which they conduct trading was because village chiefs were opposed to the hunting operations. and selling the meat of protected species in local markets. Much more protected species meat was sold during peace In the case of ivory, initial information suggests that time in urban markets, and during war time the quantity tusks are initially dispersed via many hunters and increased five-fold. Elephant meat made up a substantial transporters and are subsequently concentrated with a proportion of the illegal meat sold (37% during peace time few commanditaires (M/UM) and international middlemen and 40% during war time) in the urban market. (IM). Commanditaires receive tusks as in-kind recompense for their patronage of the hunt. A hypothesis is that such The difference between village and urban patterns was actors sponsor many hunts and accumulate the tusks because in peace time the commodity chain that supplied before selling them on. In-country seizures of large the urban markets was controlled by military officers who consignments of tusks in Cameroon, ROC and DRC facilitated the illegal hunting of protected species, but support this hypothesis, but more research is needed (e.g. also restricted the number of actors able to hunt. In war Dandjouma, 2005; Fouda, 2007; LAB, 2010; Anon., 2010; time, the departure of the military officers transformed the LAGA, 2009, 2010; TRAFFIC, 2010a). commodity chain into an open-access system that was exploited by a large number of lower-ranking soldiers. Initial research also suggests that important ivory trading In the rural bushmeat markets, protected species made social networks for M/UMs are made up of Hausa or other up only a small proportion of total sales and this was Muslim communities who have a historical, widespread unaffected by armed conflict because the commodity chain trading tradition and presence in West and Central Africa that supplied the rural markets was under the control of and that IMs are either these same Muslim actors or East the traditional authorities who discouraged illegal hunting. Asians (Chinese of various nationalities, Japanese and This suggests that the chiefs have the potential to be Koreans) who have taken up residency as businessmen or valuable collaborators in the management of a regulated diplomats in Central African countries. bushmeat trade, even in the absence of effective national government (de Merode & Cowlishaw, 2006). Figure 11 presents the commodity chains for elephant meat and ivory. This conceptual construct focuses on the commodities and how they move through the trade chain, while the social networks in Figures 9 and 10 focus on the actors who move the commodities. With meat, the hunter can supply rural middlemen, markets or consumers directly, while with ivory the hunter only supplies a middleman (who is often his commanditaire). The meat consumer can be supplied by the hunter, a middleman or buy at a bushmeat market or restaurant. The ivory consumer, or end user, will buy worked ivory only at an ivory outlet (including the Internet). The ivory commodity chain involves fewer actors and is more linear than the meat chain, which has many possible permutations of actors as meat moves from hunter to consumer.

Cowlishaw et al. (2005) and De Merode & Cowlishaw

Daniel Stiles 71 Figure 11. Commodity chains for elephant meat and ivory

72 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Transport Routes and Methods with protected species to such a degree that meat is immediately smuggled out of the area. Elephant meat Elephant Meat from BBNP was transported south to Moloundou by river The most common method of transport for hunters in and by road, north on the P4 to Yokadouma and then by the forest was foot, following elephant trails, although road, either west on a logging road to Lomié and onward to occasionally river transport by dugout canoe was used. Yaoundé via Abong Mbang, or north and then north-west Elephant meat and non-ivory products were generally to Bertoua. More research is needed to establish what dispersed very quickly, as they were first divided up proportions of elephant meat are sold and consumed in the amongst the hunting party members and then transported respective villages, towns and cities and what quantities to homes, to other consumers or to middlemen. If there are transported further along the commodity chain. Other was surplus elephant meat, it would be transported, either sources for elephant meat also exist in the vicinity of by the hunter or middlemen, along with other bushmeat BBNP: Nki NP and Lobéké NP. The Dja National Reserve taken on the hunt by a variety of means (e.g. bicycle, to the west probably also feeds elephant products to the motorcycle, private car, public bus, logging truck) on roads Lomié area and from there north to Abong Mbang. to market centres. Table 13 presents the market centres mentioned by informants to which elephant meat was CAR –There are several sources for the elephant meat transported from the meat source sites to be distributed seen for sale in the CAR case study. Only one of them is and/or sold. the MIKE monitoring site of the Dzanga-Sangha Complex. Elephant meat taken here passes by road through Cameroon – The BBNP area in south-east Cameroon is Bayanga and north through Beya and Nola to Berberati. It the only one of the case studies sites that did not report appears that elephant meat from DSC travels no further, elephant meat being utilized in some fashion in villages although additional research is needed to confirm this. <10 km from the source. This could be due to inadequate Elephant meat consumed in Berberati also originates sampling, or alternatively to the fact that ecoguard and in the Mambélé forest area about 100 km south-east of LAB patrols have increased the risk of being caught Berberati and Amada Gaza to the north-west. Commercial

Table 13. Locations where elephant meat was transported from forest source sites and sold

Source site Villages Distance km* Towns Distance km Cities Distance Km BBNP Logoué 80 S Lomié 100 W Yaoundé 420 NW Banana 70 SE Yokadouma 65 N Djaposten 130 NW Moloundou 75 S Nomedjoh Polido’o 120 NW Bertoua 190 NW 90 W Abong Mbang 180 NW DSC Bayanga 0 N Nola 100 N Berberati 220 N Beya 45 N Bamingui Ndélé 50 E Bangui 490 S OKNP Miélékouka 0 N Mbomo 0 S Ouesso 75 E Biessi 0 N Makoua 75 SE Brazzaville 600 S Epouma 20 E Ntokou 125 SE Mokouangonda 10 E Lebango 0 S Liouesso 20 E Etoumbi 20 S

OFR Nduye 0 E Mambasa 5 SE Bunia 150 E Banana 0 SE Nia Nia 40 W Beni 100 S Bungapanda 0 E Kisangani 440 W Bandisende 0 Bafwakobi 55 W

* N – north; S – south; E – east; W – west distance in km from MIKE site.

Daniel Stiles 73 logging takes place in the Mambélé area and hunters and Logging trucks are a common means of transport for middlemen make use of logging roads and logging trucks bushmeat and ivory in the Congo Basin. (Photo: John to transport bushmeat to market. Some elephant meat from Poulsen, WCS) this area may also be transported to Bangui, but further research would be needed to confirm this. The market Figure 12 presents a summary map of what is currently study in Bangui made as part of this project showed that known of elephant meat transport from the MIKE study at least for the PK12 market, the elephant meat sold there sites in western Central Africa. Not shown are transport originated in the north around the Bamingui-Bangoran NP routes from other areas. and it was transported from Ndélé south by road to Bangui, almost 500 km distant. DRC Elephant meat from the OFR is carried by foot or canoe to roads on the margins of the reserve, where it is ROC – Little if any elephant meat appears to be transported by motorbike or vehicle either to Mambasa transported to the north of OKNP to Cameroon or west to or Nia Nia. The unsold portion then travels by public Gabon. Ouesso is a small city that requires a considerably transport, commercial truck or by government, UN or large supply of bushmeat to meet its needs. Elephant meat private vehicle on the RN 4 from Mambasa east to Bunia travels from the northern sector on the road that goes or south to Beni. Meat from Nia Nia goes by the RN 4 east to Ouesso and it goes from the OKNP eastern sector through Bafwasende to Kisangani (Figure 13). by river and the RN 2 road north-east to Ouesso. Some meat is flown from Ouesso to Brazzaville. Elephant meat that originates in the logging concessions north of OKNP and around Ouesso is transported first on logging roads and subsequently on public roads to Ouesso. Elephant meat from the OKNP southern sector goes by road to Makoua, whereupon it takes the RN 2 south to Brazzaville. Bushmeat taken from east of OKNP and the Lake Télé PA goes mostly by river to Mossaka on the Congo River and then south by boat to Brazzaville.

74 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Figure 12. Elephant meat transport routes from MIKE study sites in western Central Africa

Daniel Stiles 75 Figure 13. Elephant meat transport from the OFR to market

Ivory The cities indicated as destinations are usually not the final destination where the ivory will be transformed into the Very little detail was collected on methods and routes objects that are sold retail. Nairobi and Addis Ababa, for example, are merely transit points that have been identified of transporting ivory due to the sensitive nature of the by seizures for onward transport to East Asia. Douala is topic and reticence on the part of actors to reveal their also a well-known entrepôt from which ivory is smuggled to operations. Tusks are obviously concealed when they are West Africa, North America and East Asia. transported, but more needs to be learned about whether they are cut up to assist concealment, how this might The contiguous forest area that includes Minkébé National influence pricing, how much transport is abetted by those Reserve in Gabon, OKNP, Nouabélé-Ndoki NP in northern in government or law enforcement and so on. ROC, DSC and the south-east Cameroon PAs (BBNP, Nki, Lobéké, Dja) contains a significant proportion of the Because transport routes near the forest source locations remaining population of forest elephants (Blanc, et al., are so limited, commercial elephant meat and ivory 2007; Blake, et al., 2007). Most of the ivory that originates necessarily travel over the same roads and rivers to in this single area from the illegally killed elephants moves reach the regional urban centres. In these localities, ivory through a variety of forest paths, tracks, roads and rivers diverges from meat as tusks, whether whole or cut into to reach three cities: Brazzaville, Yaoundé or Douala. A sections, are either taken by commanditaires or purchased relatively small proportion of the ivory is worked in these by middlemen. The key places where ivory congregates cities and the rest is smuggled out, mainly to East Asia and first before onward transport to usual destinations are West Africa, along with some of the worked ivory. Figures presented in Table 14. 14 and 15 present what was learned in this study about ivory transport routes.

76 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Table 14. Locations where ivory congregates and transits after leaving source areas Ivory Source First Assembly Location Transit Points African Destination BBNP Yokadouma Bertoua, Abong Mbang Yaoundé, Douala Moloundou Yokadouma, Bertoua Yaoundé, Douala DSC Berberati, Yokadouma Bertoua Yaoundé, Douala OKNP Ouesso Makoua, Ntokou Brazzaville Sembe, Moloundou Yokadouma Yaoundé, Douala OFR Mambasa Bunia, Beni, Kampala Nairobi, Addis Ababa Nia Nia Kisangani Nairobi, Addis Ababa

Figure 14. Ivory transport routes and means from the western Central Africa study sites.

Daniel Stiles 77 Figure 15. Ivory transport routes and means from the OFR

Influence of External 17 shows them in eastern Congo Basin near the OFR. The MIKE sites in this study in western Congo Basin Factors on Elephant Killing are virtually surrounded by logging concessions. The presence of logging activities has been demonstrated to One of the long-term objectives of this project is to have profound negative impacts on elephants (and other determine the influence external factors have on species) in several ways. Logging companies construct elephant killing and trade in its products. External factors roads to reach the interior of logging areas along with include logging (legal and illegal), mining, infrastructure camps to house the labour needed for timber-cutting, development, law enforcement at the national and transport of logs and catering of camp personnel. Roads international level, community forest governance and allow access by hunters and farmers, the company economic trends that affect motivation and demand. Taken personnel creates demand for meat, the possibility of as a whole, the effects of external factors as drivers of employment attracts many more people than are actually elephant poaching constitute a vast subject area that employed to the logging areas and the logging trucks will require considerable research to unravel with any offer an easy and previously unavailable form of transport degree of detail. However, initial research in this project of bushmeat out of remote forest areas. Wilkie, et al. and work already undertaken by MIKE allow the following (2000, 2001), Laurance, et al., (2006), Blake, et al. (2007, observations to be made: 2008) and Poulsen, et al., (2009) have highlighted the dangers posed by logging concessions to elephants. Logging Elephant population surveys in Central Africa ascertained Figure 16 shows the location of legal forestry concessions that elephants avoid logging roads and human activities, in relation to PAs in western Congo Basin and Figure which concentrates them in PAs (Blake, 2005; Blake, et

78 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report al., 2008; Remis & Kpanou, 2010)5. Forest elephants are companies to follow that would result in minimum impacts increasingly confined and constrained by roads throughout on wildlife, including elephants (IUCN/ITTO, 2006). the Congo Basin, and this is reducing effective habitat Companies that follow the guidelines can be certified by availability, isolating populations and increasing elephants’ the FSC, and this allows them to gain wider access to vulnerability to hunters. The protected areas become, in markets and sell their products at higher prices. A good effect, hunting zones for poachers after ivory and meat example of implementation of the FSC guidelines is the (Blom, et al., 2005; Blake, et al., 2008; Remis & Kpanou, Buffer Zone Project (BZP) in northern ROC that has 2010; Fa, et al., 2006). The initial results of this study worked since 1999 with the Congolaise Industrielle des support this conclusion, as hunters reported taking most of Bois (CIB) logging company, WCS and the Congolese their elephants from within PAs. Ministry of Forestry Economy (Elkan, et al., 2006; Poulsen, 2009; Mockrin, et al., 2011). The project worked in three Minnemeyer (2002) concluded that, at most, 35% of forestry concessions adjacent to Nouabélé-Ndoki NP. Central African forests remained in large, low-access forest The objectives were to protect Nouabélé-Ndoki NP from that had yet to be allocated for logging. Unmapped logging hunting pressure occasioned by logging operations and roads were offering access for hunters to many areas of increased immigration, sustainably manage the wildlife forest that had previously been considered as ‘low-access’. and mitigate the negative effects of logging. For example, Her estimate was based on data that dated to more than contacts between BZP personnel and CIB crew leaders ten years previous to this study; thus the situation is even concerning increased incidences of elephant poaching worse today. led crew leaders to crack down on their own employees (Poulsen, 2009). The FSC is an important example of how To counter the negative impacts of logging on biodiversity, private-sector partnerships for conservation can function in the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was established in extractive resource zones (ERZs) (see below). 1993, which set out principles and guidelines for timber The only legal logging in the OFR area of DRC is the

5 Van Vliet & Nasi (2008) and Poulsen, et al., (2011), however, are exceptions. ENRA concession 25 km south-east of the nearest In a Gabon logging concession Van Vliet & Nasi (2008) found that elephants boundary of the reserve (Figure 17). Little tree cutting for were equally found close or far from roads and do not seem to be affected by hunting activities. Poulsen, et al., (2011) found in northern ROC that more timber takes place within the OFR and Hart, et al. (2008) elephants were found in logged and hunted forest than in unlogged, unhunted did not even include logging in his list of threats to the forest. Both studies found that elephants tended to be attracted to secondary forests where there was a diversity of food resources, regardless of roads. reserve. ENRA staff and logging roads appear to have little

Logging towns increase bushmeat and elephant poaching by constructing access roads, creating a demand for meat by employees and attracting immigrants in search of work (Source: Poulsen, 2009)

Daniel Stiles 79 Figure 16. Forestry concessions in western Central They attract young men as labour, who might poach in Africa (Source: Morgan & Sanz, 2007 their spare time, and paths are cut into the forest for log extraction, which facilitate movements by hunters in the same way that logging company roads do, although on impact on the OFR elephant population at present. Illicit a smaller scale. The DRC government has given away tree cutting to provide logs to illegal timber mills does pose more than 15 million ha of forest to international logging a potential threat to elephants, however, as the artisanal companies since 2002 and the Ituri area will probably soon saw mills are located in forest areas not far from the OFR. be targeted (CNN, 2007).

80 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Figure 17. Forestry concessions near the OFR, DRC GeoCam cobalt-nickel-manganese project at Nkamouna, in which mineral reserves were projected to be 54.7 million Mining tonnes, requiring 20 years of mining to extract (Anon., An enormous new iron ore mine is planned by Comibel 2011b). Another major hazard is the South Korean C&K of China for Bélinga in north-eastern Gabon, estimated Mining Mobilong diamond mine, that announced that it to need 15,000 workers. It will destroy large tracts of would provide 1,500 direct and 5,000 indirect jobs, as forest and increase demand for bushmeat, and could well as build roads, schools, hospitals, etc. (Musa, 2010). affect neighbouring Cameroon and ROC (Bennett, 2008; Artisanal mining in diamond-bearing alluvial deposits is Jansson, 2010). The iron ore deposits extend into ROC already destroying forest and stimulating poaching (Anon., and southern Cameroon, posing the threat of future mining 2009b). activities and associated problems. Significant diamond deposits within the DSC in CAR have The south-east Cameroon region is gearing up to become attracted a wave of immigrants (Mogba, et al., 1996). The a major mining area as well, which will have profound main source of food in the mining camps is bushmeat from negative impacts on biodiversity and elephants (Anon., animals trapped within the reserve. The DSC management 2009b; WWF-CARPO, 2009). Several mining permits has carried out missions with the police and gendarmes have been issued for a locality near Lomié (east of Dja to disband these mining camps, without much success. Reserve), for an area on the northern periphery of BBNP Many of the enforcement officers, the local political elite and Nki, for places actually inside parts of BBNP and and a significant portion of the population are profiting from Lobéké NP and in various logging concessions (Anon., diamond mining, and are thus not willing to uphold the laws 2009b; WWF-CARPO, 2009). More than 2,000 feasibility creating the protected area (Carroll, 1998). The diamond test pits completed by mining companies already are mining has degraded some forest clearings and miners beginning to create hazards for wildlife. One of the main and hunters have chased off elephants and other wildlife interventions to threaten biodiversity currently is the (Roulet & Mamang-Kanga, 2008).

Daniel Stiles 81 There has been considerable small-scale mining in and Communications development is beginning to influence around the OFR, but the activity has decreased since bushmeat trade in important ways. In south-east militias and other occupants have been cleared out of Cameroon, for example, informants said that mobile the reserve. No large roads were built, but a few gold phones were used to arrange transport pick-ups of meat and diamond camps persist and hunters reported that and ivory. This was not possible in most areas around the the miners do buy elephant meat (Amboya, 2004; Anon., other MIKE sites, as there was no local network and no 2009a). one had a satellite phone. If wireless phone companies extend their networks, this means of communication To mitigate the negative effects of mining, the same could facilitate elephant poaching and product transport approach as taken with logging concessions should be considerably. Interpol has already begun to investigate undertaken (Aviram, et al., 2003). and take measures against the use of mobile phones and the Internet in poaching and illegal wildlife trade (Orengo, Infrastructure Development 2010). Infrastructure development consists mainly of roads, rail, airports and air transport, and communications. Upgraded Forest Governance roads in the ROC (RN 2) and DRC (RN 4) have increased Each case study country has forestry laws that provide the road traffic and the ease of moving trade goods, including legal framework for managing forest resources, including bushmeat and ivory, from the OKNP and OFR areas elephants. These operate in tandem – sometimes in to Brazzaville and Kisangani/Bunia/Beni respectively. conflict – with traditional land tenure rules, which are The better condition of roads in Cameroon was cited by usually based on kinship networks and relationships. informants as an important consideration for moving ivory Laws are in transition in most Central African countries as from south-western CAR and northern ROC to the P4 road legislation from the colonial era and post-colonial period and onwards to Yaoundé. are under review and amendment, influenced by current conservation initiatives. The Commission of Ministers No railroad lines run near any of the case study MIKE in Charge of Forests in Central Africa (COMIFAC) has sites, but the rail lines that run between north-eastern emerged as a strong centralizing institution to gather Cameroon and Yaoundé and between Brazzaville and together all of the various international, national and NGO Pointe-Noire in ROC are known to transport bushmeat. It is forest conservation programmes under one umbrella. not known if they carry elephant meat. The Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) acts as a facilitator to promote cooperation between the various The only internal air traffic uncovered involved bushmeat COMIFAC participants to implement forest governance that was flown from Ouesso to Brazzaville. Ivory originating guidelines established by COMIFAC’s Convergence Plan. in the MIKE sites and surrounding areas is probably flown out of urban airports (Yaoundé, Douala, Brazzaville and Forest zoning and land-use in Central African countries Kisangani) internationally, but the quantities are unknown. are complex, with many different categories and applicable Future research will also be aimed at discovering whether laws. Large tracts of forest land are increasingly being elephant bushmeat is flown from airports and, if so, what turned over by governments to foreign private enterprises the destinations are. Chaber, et al. (2010) estimated for natural resource exploitation. The fact that the that 273 tonnes a year of bushmeat was flown on Air legal and economic circumstances are not always well France alone from West and Central Africa to Paris. comprehended by all parties is a problem that needs to be CAR, Cameroon and ROC were the main sources of this addressed by comprehensive legislation reform (Karsenty, bushmeat, although DRC had a very small sample size 2010). and would be expected to be a large bushmeat source based on what is known of the bushmeat trade in the The main strategy of the CBFP partners to achieve good country (de Merode, et al., 2004). The estimated annual forest governance involves defining large-scale landscapes arrival of bushmeat in Paris from Cameroon was 190.84 tonnes, from CAR 49.4 tonnes and from ROC 30.16 in which to implement land use planning. There are tonnes. Only one elephant trunk was found in the sample. currently 12 landscapes in the Congo Basin covering 2 Trader prices for bushmeat quoted in Paris were between 839,128 km . Landscape level planning defines different US$ 27 and US$ 40/kg, twice that of Parisian supermarket types of land-use zones: protected areas (PA), whose domestic meat prices (Chaber, et al., 2010). Harris and main purpose is the conservation of natural resources; Karamehmedovic (2009) reported that elephant meat has community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) been seen openly for sale in New York, USA, catering to areas where communities have some form of natural the local African residents. resources use rights; and extractive resource zones (ERZ),

82 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report the State on to local communities in the CBNRM zones and to private enterprise in the ERZs.

Governance The MIKE (2010a) analysis found that ‘national government effectiveness’, or good governance, as measured by the World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank, 2010) was highly correlated with elephant poaching. The World Governance Indicators measure six different aspects of governance, namely: government effectiveness, voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption. Government effectiveness captures ‘perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government’s commitment to such policies’ (Kaufman, Figure 18. The BBNP and OKNP are in the landscape et al., 2010). All four case study countries obtained a labelled ‘Southern Cameroon’, the DSC is in the negative score for this variable in 2009, which means Northern Congo landscape and the OFR is in the that government effectiveness is poor relative to other landscape labelled ‘Okapi WR’. countries. With the combined index, 1 is the country with the worst governance out of 200. Cameroon ranked 13, which include forest concessions, large-scale private CAR 33, ROC also 33 and DRC 6. This places these four plantations, mines, safari hunting zones, and energy and countries in the bottom 17% of countries measured for transportation infrastructure. Each of the MIKE study sites governance. belongs to a CBFP landscape, but the land-use zoning and planning are still in an early phase (de Wasseige, et al., Rule of Law and Control of Corruption 2009; ECODIT, 2010). Figure 18 shows their locations. These two variables, also included in the Worldwide Governance Indicators, measure ‘the extent to which PAs are managed largely by government wildlife and agents have confidence in and abide by the rules forests agencies, CBNRM areas are, or in principle will of society, and in particular, the quality of contract be, managed by local communities, and private-sector enforcement, property rights, the police and the courts, companies operating in ERZs are subject to management as well as the likelihood of crime and violence’ and ‘the plans that they formulate following government guidelines extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, and laws. To date, the Ituri-Epulu-Aru Landscape in DRC in which the OFR is found appears to be the most advanced including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well (ECODIT, 2010; Brown, et al., 2009; Brown, 2010; Anon., as “capture” of the state by elites and private interests’ 2009a). (Kaufman, et al., 2010).

Currently, forest governance has deficiencies in the areas All four of the case study countries scored very poorly of the four MIKE study sites, but if the COMIFAC plan for these variables, which corroborates the information implemented by the CBFP partners succeeds, natural provided by informants that government and law resource management should improve considerably and enforcement agents actively promote and benefit from the devolve management responsibilities historically held by proceeds of illegal elephant killing.

Daniel Stiles 83 Law Enforcement would be necessary to reduce poaching to an acceptable Monitoring adherence to laws and rules and penalizing level (Milner-Gulland & Leader-Williams, 1992). infringements when they are detected is an essential part of successful conservation and natural resource The only way to achieve long-term change in the current management (Leader-Williams & Milner-Gulland, 1993; situation in respect of law enforcement would involve Rowcliffe, et al., 2004; Gibson, et al., 2005). Penalties may lowering the incentives to poach elephants (particularly take various forms, from fines, prison terms and social the prices of meat and ivory), raising the economic costs sanctioning to even a shoot-on-sight policy, depending to poachers by eliminating the commanditaires who on the enforcement system (Messer, 2010; Keane, et al., subsidize hunts, and increasing the perceived risk and 2008). Several studies of illegal hunting have shown that real penalties of poaching through better equipping and reducing the effort devoted to enforcement (e.g. lowering training law enforcers and increasing the penalties for investment in equipment and training, or reducing patrolling poaching. These should all be done within the context effort) increases the number of poaching incidents and is of raising the opportunity costs of poaching through deleterious to conserving wildlife populations (Jachmann & developing livelihood alternatives in the form of agriculture, Billiouw, 1997; De Merode, et al., 2007). community-based timber and non-timber forest product trade devised under sustainable management regimes, But compliance by the populace is at the heart of the and creating small businesses (e.g. brickmaking, carpentry, law enforcement issue, and many factors influence fish farming). A good forest governance regime is critical to the decision of individuals of whether to comply or not, achieving these goals. including economic situation, attitudes, social conventions and perception of the risk level in cost versus gain (Keane, COMIFAC has proposed a strategic framework for a et al., 2008). The question of which natural resource Wildlife Trade Enforcement Action Plan 2011-2016 in which conservation law enforcement policies to formulate and the principal goal is stated to be: ‘National and subregional enforce in low-income countries such as in Central Africa wildlife law enforcement effort is increased significantly, is particularly difficult to resolve, as people with few effective deterrents to wildlife poaching and trade are economic prospects may have little to lose by engaging in implemented, and poaching and illegal wildlife trade poaching, depending on the penalties (Messer, 2010). This prosecution is increased and monitored throughout Central project has demonstrated that effective law enforcement Africa by 2016’. Elephant poaching and product trade of poaching, illicit transport of bushmeat and ivory, and the make up an important part of the plan, involving the IUCN/ selling of elephant products is deficient in the four case SSC AfESG, MIKE and ETIS. study countries. Human Population Growth This study has shown that the potential economic gains Population growth exacerbates many of the problems from elephant meat and ivory are very high compared to associated with natural resource exploitation in the Congo other legal and illegal opportunities in Congo Basin forest Basin. Figure 19 presents the trend in population number zones. For most forest-dwellers, particularly unemployed and density from 1950 to that projected in 2050. If the recent immigrants attracted by logging or mining, the density and overall number projected are realized, it is opportunity costs of poaching are practically nil. In addition, difficult to imagine, given the present state of governance elephants cause negative economic costs for forest zone and economic development, how biodiversity will be able farmers by destroying crops, knocking down fruit and cash to survive the increase. crop trees, and harming both human life and property. Farmers make up a significant proportion of forest peoples, Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) and farming is seasonal, leaving periods when labour Linked to population growth is the increasing conflict requirements are low. To counter by law enforcement between humans and elephants as humans expand alone these positive and negative factors that all drive into elephant habitats in search of new agricultural land elephant poaching has proven thus far problematic. The and forest resources. In some areas outside of PAs, case studies in this project have shown that stricter law the number of ‘problem’ elephants killed represents a enforcement implementation (destruction of hunting significant proportion of deaths from all causes (e.g. camps, arrests, seizures of weapons, meat and ivory, Kahindi, et al., 2009). There are two main circumstances etc.) can reduce elephant poaching, but without outside of legally killed elephants due to HEC. The first is ‘problem support, it cannot be sustained. As long as there remains animal control’ (PAC), which is carried out by the wildlife great incentive to poach as a result of high elephant meat authorities in response to complaints by villagers of crop- and ivory prices, unrealistic increases in enforcement effort raiding or other elephant depredations. The second is

84 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report most deprived people on Earth, certainly an important factor driving elephant poaching.

On the ivory demand side, economic development over the past two decades, particularly in East Asia, has provided new wealth to millions of people who have a cultural affinity for elephant ivory. China’s Figure 19. Population growth in the Congo Basin, manufacturing boom has created a large and growing 1950-2050 (Source: Nellemann, et al., 2010) number of baofahu – literally, the ‘suddenly wealthy’. Their buying habits and tastes are reshaping global trade flows. Many of the raw materials needed to feed China’s self-defence, in which local inhabitants will kill problem industrial boom have to be imported from other countries elephants that are threatening their lives and/or property. and today China is the biggest driver of markets in All of the countries in this study permit by law the killing of commodities such as copper, oil, coal and iron ore – and elephants in self-defence. Focused research would need ivory. to be carried out to determine what proportion of HEC killings were unjustified, i.e. performed on non-threatening The highest proportion of ivory seizures is for ivory elephants in order to acquire meat, tusks, etc. MIKE data destined for the Far East, and the number and size of the collection forms include HEC as a killing motivation, but ivory seizures has been growing over the past decade since in this study all sites were PAs, the cause of death (CITES, 2010b). The demand for ivory in China, Thailand data did not often report HEC as a motivation in a review and other eastern Asian countries is the single most conducted of data sheets in the four MIKE monitoring sites. important driver of elephant poaching (Stiles, 2004, 2009). Informants, however, did report that elephants outside of PAs are killed because of HEC and the meat is distributed to local inhabitants. Meat from legitimate HEC killings does not appear to enter bushmeat trade networks, although research is needed on the question.

Macroeconomics and Economic Trends On the elephant product supply side, many informants cited poverty as the main reason why they poached elephants. Central Africa has the lowest Gross Domestic Product of any subregion of Africa (Figure 20). An analysis by MIKE (CITES, 2010a) found that one of the most important predictors of levels of poaching in elephant range States was the Human Development Index. The Human Development Index, calculated by the UN based on a number of economic, social and political variables, ranked Cameroon as 131, CAR as 159, ROC as 126 and DRC as 168 out of 169 countries (UNDP, 2010). The highest ranked is 1, the lowest is 169. These rankings indicate that these four Central African countries belong in the bottom quartile of the world’s nations in terms of socio-economic development. Along with the GDP Figure 20. Regional Gross Domestic Product in Africa evidence, Central Africans are amongst the poorest and (Source: UNDP, 2010)

Daniel Stiles 85 Conclusions and Recommendations

The initial phase of this project has largely achieved the with other parts from the elephant, and these non-ivory immediate objectives set out at the beginning, which were products are often part of the incentive for hunters and to: porters to participate in arduous elephant hunts. Elephant hunts tend to involve more work effort than subsistence • establish institutional support and working hunts: elephant hunting parties are larger, travel longer relationships with cooperating governmental and distances and last longer than subsistence hunts. international and national organizations involved in biodiversity conservation in the case study countries; Elephant meat represents potentially larger gross • identify international consultants, national experts, economic returns per elephant than ivory, but ivory brings technical advisors and field assistants that can in several times the income possible from meat in terms contribute usefully to project goals; of unit weight (US$/kg), thus there is a rational economic • test the methodology under field conditions with a explanation of why ivory is more important than meat view to refining the methods and data variables in as the primary causal factor motivating the killing of order to produce improved results in future; elephants. • identify the priority data collection localities; • produce a set of quantitative and qualitative data Many consumers, particularly in urban areas, prize elephant meat and they are willing to pay higher prices that will present an initial depiction of the causes and for it than for almost any other kind of meat. The main circumstances of illegal elephant killing in the project reason why more elephant meat is not eaten cited sites; by consumer informants, corroborated by bushmeat • generate the information necessary to plan a well- vendors, is lack of availability. Although elephant meat has focused project second phase in which all of the significant economic potential for hunters, the commodity parameters for successful research are in place; and is underutilized because of manpower transport constraints • establish a baseline data set from which to monitor and fear of being detected by the authorities if hunting elephant meat and ivory trade. parties are too large or remain too long in one place smoking meat. The baseline data set is not complete, however, and more work will be required to fill the gaps and to confirm many of Since demand for elephant meat is high, there is great the initial findings. The methodology and data entry system potential for the trade in its meat to increase as other have been revised to enhance the effectiveness of data bushmeats become scarcer as a result of over-exploitation collection and analysis based on the experience gained propelled by human population growth and lack of protein in this project phase. Sophisticated statistical analyses alternatives (Brown & Fa, 2007). The trade would almost were not carried out on the data collected in this study certainly increase if logistical constraints were eased (e.g. because it was not felt that the data sets were sufficiently roads were built offering easier access and egress) or representative of the respective variable populations security concerns lessened (e.g. ecoguard patrols and to yield valid results. A longer period of field work will road checkpoints decreased or corruption of law enforcers be required to achieve the long-term objectives. The increased). bushmeat hunting study of Rist, et al. (2010), carried out over a 15-month period in Equatorial Guinea, represents The goals of researchers, wildlife managers and policy an example of the expertise, time and effort needed to makers concerned with bushmeat in general differ in obtain statistically valid data for hunters. Similar input important aspects from those concerned with elephant would be needed to acquire the data for middlemen, meat. The former accept the reality that bushmeat vendors and consumers. constitutes a legitimate and crucial part of the economy and diet of forest dwellers, and the ultimate goal is Initial results were obtained for the long-term objectives. sustainable use. The elephant, on the other hand, is a fully Hunters that specialize in elephants are commercial protected species in most countries, with the exception of hunters who primarily target ivory. They often work on legal sports hunting in a few, and the killing and trading behalf of others who subsidize elephant hunts with in its products is illegal. In those countries, policies and weapons, ammunition and supplies in exchange for tusks. strategies related to killing and trade in its meat will not aim Meat is an important by-product of these hunts, along at sustainability, but rather at maximum restriction.

86 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report Recommendations public awareness programmes should be increased to create public consensus of the need to conserve Recommendations for policy and actions to reduce illegal elephants and also to generate stigma associated elephant killing emerging from this study include: with buying elephant products.

1. The COMIFAC-CBFP strategy of focusing on defined 7. The international community should sustain its landscapes and creating land-use zones and natural efforts to encourage governments in Central Africa resource management plans should constitute and elsewhere to practice good governance and the framework for policies and actions aimed at effective rule of law and such efforts should even be conserving elephants. intensified.

2. Access, user rights and the responsibility to 8. It is crucial to maintain large protected areas in sustainably manage wildlife resources should be Central Africa for elephant and other biodiversity transferred whenever possible to local stakeholders conservation. Governments and international who have a vested interest in maintaining the donors should consider establishing buffer zones resources and who can deliver sustainable solutions around protected areas in which transportation and at the local level. Capacity of these empowered communications infrastructure will not be introduced. local communities should be strengthened to ensure A real dilemma is the paradox created by, on the that they have the ability to exercise these rights one hand, the need for economic development to responsibly and with accountability. decrease rural populations’ dependence on natural resources for survival and, on the other hand, the 3. Conservation and sustainable use of wildlife consequences of increased economic activity: resources would be enhanced through the larger populations with increased means to impact incorporation of traditional knowledge and modes of negatively on biodiversity, including elephants. leadership into management and monitoring systems. Development should therefore go hand in hand with effective conservation policy and actions. 4. Commercial hunters are the proximate cause of elephant poaching in Central Africa and according to 9. Elephants and other protected species such as great them, they would cease killing elephants if alternative apes congregate in forest clearings. These localities sources of income were available to them. Elephant and the paths leading to them should receive hunters are often known within their communities concerted attention by forest ecoguards in protected and to local law enforcement authorities. Special areas, and if located in State forests, forestry efforts should be made with these hunters to provide concessions or communal lands, buffer zones should education, training and employment as an incentive to be created around them in which no human activities cease killing elephants. Concurrently, laws must also are allowed. be more strictly enforced to arrest and punish hunters to deter illegal elephant killing. 10. In cases where extractive industries operate, such as oil, logging or mining, governments and NGOs 5. Commanditaires (those who order and subsidize need to work with the private sector to promote best- elephant hunts) and middlemen trading in elephant meat and ivory are intermediate causes of illegal use practices and the establishment of company elephant killing. Without their participation and often regulations that promote sustainable forestry encouragement in killing elephants and rewarding management under the Forest Stewardship Council. hunters, elephant poaching would probably decline These include prohibiting bushmeat to feed workers significantly. The relevant authorities, assisted as may and forbidding company vehicles to transport wildlife be by NGOs (e.g. LAGA, PALF), need to do more products. to identify these middlemen and put a stop to their operations by publicizing their activities and taking 11. National wildlife management agencies (e.g. MINFOF, them to court. ICCN) should be strengthened and field officers should be trained and equipped properly to allow 6. Consumers that purchase elephant meat and worked them to carry out their duties. Staff should also be ivory of illegal origin are the ultimate cause of illegal recompensed appropriately and in a timely fashion killing of elephants, as they create the demand that in order to incentivize, build morale and provide economic motivation must supply. Education and encouragement to carry out their duties.

Daniel Stiles 87 12. Law enforcement monitoring should be improved Agriculture Organization, WWF, WCS, CIFOR) all within national wildlife management agencies in order aim for the sustainability of species offtake. Although to evaluate their effectiveness and take remedial illegal, the trade in meat and other body products measures where necessary. of protected species, such as the elephant, should receive recognition as a special category in which 13. Resources should be provided by national trade is prohibited. Policies and strategies should be governments and international donors to permit formulated to address the illegal hunting and product comprehensive elephant censuses and monitoring trade of these species. programmes to be carried out in cooperation with national wildlife agencies and international 16. Existing legislation should be reviewed and revised to organizations such as MIKE, WWF, WCS and the remove ambiguities concerning elephant killing and ECOFAC programme. product trade, and to include recent modifications made by decree by governments in respect of the 14. An elephant meat and ivory trade monitoring protected status of the elephant. programme at the site level should be initiated under the auspices of CITES MIKE and in collaboration with the IUCN/SSC AfESG and TRAFFIC.

15. Recommendations regarding the trade in bushmeat made by concerned parties (e.g. IUCN, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Food and

Elephants are hunted both for their tusks and their meat. (Photo: Karl Ammann)

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Daniel Stiles 99 Appendix I. National Laws Relevant to Elephants

Cameroon Cameroon forest elephants (Loxodonta africana cyclotis) and savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana africana) Cameroon acceded to CITES on 5 June, 1981. The main both fall under a unique classification according to Order laws that govern wildlife are: 0648/MINFOF of 18 December 2006. Elephants with tusks weighing more than 5 kg are classed as Class B species • Law No. 94/01 of 20 January 1994 to lay down (partially protected) while elephants with tusks weighing Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries Regulations; less than 5 kg are Class A species (fully protected).

• Decree No. 95/466/PM of 20 July 1995 to lay down Class A ‘trophy animals’ are also distinguished from the conditions for theimplementation of Wildlife Class A ‘bushmeat’ products within the law, as permits for Regulations; trophy sports hunting of Class A species are provided to specialist, large game ‘tourist’ hunters, while local hunters • Order No. 0648/MINFOF of 18 December 2006 to set are not permitted to hunt Class A species. Cameroon has the list of animals of classes A, B and C; and an annual CITES export quota for elephant trophies of 160 tusks (80 elephants). Cameroon was given a quota of • Order N° 0649/MINFOF to lay down the distribution of 160 tusks (80 elephants) in 2009; all 80 were allocated to animal species whose killing is authorized as well as sports hunting operators. the latitude of killing per type of sports hunting permit. Hunting permits cost approximately US$ 600 and can be issued for January to June (the designated hunting The 1994 Forestry Law regulates the hunting and sale of season) for certain areas, by region. There are quotas forest animals, collectively referred to as ‘bushmeat’ in for each permit. CITES gives the quota annually much of sub-Saharan Africa. The areas in which hunting for endangered species. The Ministry of Territorial may take place in Cameroon are termed ‘hunting zones’ Administration is in charge of controlling the illegal in Section 24(1) and are further categorized into game circulation of arms, working in collaboration with BIR/LAB. reserves, hunting areas and game ranches. Section 78 MINFOF is responsible for controlling ivory, bushmeat and of the Forestry Law addresses the Protection of Wildlife wildlife products. and Biodiversity, with section 78(1) classifying all animal species in Cameroon into three classes (A, B and C), with Section 9(2) of the 1994 law states that certain forest conditions for their exploitation. products, such as ebony, ivory and other forest products of particular interest shall be classified as special. Section Class A species are totally protected and may not be killed 9(3) states that extraction of special products shall be (except as provided for in section 82 and 83 of this law). laid down by decree. Section 100 states that a license is Class B species are partially protected and may be hunted, required to transform ivory into local crafts and to store captured or killed subject to the grant of a hunting permit. processed ivory. If anyone is found in possession of Section 76 of the law states that any person found in any processed ivory, it is up to that person to prove, if need be, place, at any time, in possession of a whole or partial class that the elephant concerned had tusks that each weighed A or B protected animal, is considered to have captured more than 5 kg. or killed the animal. For certain class A trophy animals, a certificate of origin specifying specific characteristics of Decree No. 95/466/PM issued 20 July 1995, by the Prime the animals and the registration number of the trophies is Minister laid down the conditions for the implementation required to enable the identification of animal products. of wildlife regulations, which included regulations on Export of wild animal products and meat requires a protected area management, environmental impact certificate of origin and export permit. surveys that should accompany any mining, agro-pastoral or industrial project near protected areas, as well as

100 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report quotas for various wildlife species authorized for hunting. CAR Under this decree, hunting and fishing are forbidden within national parks. Local populations using traditional CAR acceded to CITES on 27 August 1980. The following collection, trapping and hunting techniques have user laws are relevant to elephant hunting and bushmeat and rights to hunt class C species in permitted zones (i.e., ivory trade. community forests, communal or private forests) outside of integral ecological reserves, national parks and sports Ordinance No. 84.045 of 27 July 1984 established hunting zones (referred to as game ranches in this wildlife protection and hunting regulations within CAR. It document). defined categories of protected areas and the rules for their establishment and management. Article 27 defined Section 45 of the decree states that citizens or residents three categories of wild animals: those that are fully can obtain collection licenses from MINFOF that would protected, partially protected and ordinary games species. allow them to collect and commercially utilize carcasses In Appendix II of this order it lists fully protected species and ivory of Class B species (i.e. elephants with tusks in list A, partially protected species in list B and ordinary >5 kg). The license is valid for one hunting season. The game species in list C. Under this ordinance species listed trading of elephant meat and ivory is therefore legal, if the as class A are given the greatest legal protection because trader can obtain a ‘collection license’. of threats that endanger their survival, their habitat and population. Article 28 states that hunting, capture, Section 58 states that hunters with permits must declare collection of any individual belonging to these species are any meat or trophies still in their possession to MINFOF strictly prohibited. Those species listed in list B are partially after the expiration of the permit, or the possession will be protected species and may only be taken under a special deemed illegal. It would seem therefore, that legal hunters license; those listed in list C are considered ordinary game may possess bushmeat and ivory indefinitely with a simple species and may only be taken by ‘traditional’ hunters or declaration. by the holders of hunting licenses.

Section 62(1) states that meat from animals killed during Under this ordinance, elephants with tusks less than 10 official battues or for safety reasons shall belong, in part, kg each are listed as Class A species and unconditionally to the affected population and in part to the volunteer protected; those with tusks weighing more than 10 kg are hunters. Section 62(2) states that the trophies of the listed as class B. animals referred to in Section 62(1) above shall belong to the services in charge of wildlife. However, if a hunter kills Ordinance No. 85/005 of 30 January 1985 closed any an elephant with a hunting permit, he may own the trophies type of elephant hunting anywhere in CAR. It has been on condition that he pays the related fees. completely illegal since that time to hunt elephants. A review and analysis of sports and village hunting in the Cameroon law, therefore, permits both the hunting of Dzanga-Sangha area did not list the elephant as a hunted elephants with >5 kg tusks and the selling of their meat species (Roulet & Mamang-Kanga, 2008), but Fargeot and trophies, as long as the required permits and licenses & Castel (2009) listed elephant bushmeat as a utilized have been obtained. resource in a discussion of village hunting management.

Unfortunately, Ordinance No. 85/005 made no mention of elephant trophies or other products that might originate from natural deaths, self-defence killings or legal, administrative elephant killings. Ordinance No. 84.045, Article 77 states that found trophies (e.g. tusks) of A or B list animals must be turned over to the nearest Forestry post or to the Department of Hunting in Bangui. Article 91, however, implies that tusks from an elephant killed in self-defence could be registered with the authorities and be legally owned. Articles 84-89 in 84.045 allow legal ivory working and selling by registered carvers. All raw ivory must be marked and registered and annual reports must be filed with the government indicating from where

Daniel Stiles 101 and how much ivory was obtained during the year and ROC what stocks remained as of 31 December of a given year. Until this law is amended, it appears that if ivory carvers The ROC acceded to CITES on 31 January 1983. Hunting can offer evidence that tusks they own predate 1985, or and activities linked to the commercialization and utilization were obtained after that date from elephants killed in self- of wild species are regulated by Law No. 37-2008 of 28 defence, and if they were able to register the tusks, the November 2008 on ‘Wildlife and Protected Areas’, which ivory would be legal to work and sell. Presumably, any abrogates the previous Law No. 48/83 of 21 April 1983 on worked ivory predating 1984 would be legal under any ‘Conditions of Conservation and Exploitation of Wildlife’. circumstances. Animal species are classified as totally protected, partially protected or other. The elephant was classified as ‘partially Decree No. 84.256 of 1984 regulates the transport protected’ in 1984, but by Act no. 114-91 of 24 June and sale of bushmeat in CAR. It states that bushmeat 1991, the killing of elephants was made illegal and in the commerce licenses are not valid inside of hunting zones; same year, Act no. 32/82 conferred total protection on the bushmeat from foreign countries is strictly prohibited to elephant. transit or circulate within hunting zones; and licensed hunters living within hunting zones may dispose of Totally protected species cannot be killed nor can any part bushmeat within the hunting zone, but cannot export it. of them be eaten, sold, bought or possessed. Exceptions The purpose is clear, the government wishes to keep to killing a totally protected animal are self-defence, bushmeat obtained from within hunting zones segregated scientific use as permitted by the responsible ministry and from bushmeat originating outside of hunting zones. administrative killing of dangerous animals as authorized by the ministry. Ordinance No. 90.018 of 29 December 1990 established the Special Dense Forest Reserve Dzanga-Sangha. The The import, export, detention and transport of wild animals national territory comprises multiple zones, including or their trophies are strictly prohibited throughout the protected areas reserved for conservation activities and national territory, except for special exceptions for scientific hunting zones conceded to hunting safari operators (i.e., research or reproduction purposes. sports hunting zones). The possession and movement of totally protected Under Ordinance No. 90.003 of 9 June 1990, the Central species, their trophies or their hides are subject to African Forestry Code, local populations can freely obtaining a certificate of origin. If a totally protected animal exercise their right of usage to meet their domestic needs is killed in self-defence, the trophy must be turned over to outside of integral reserves and national parks. But any the competent technical service for onward transmission to exploitation for commercial purposes is subject to the the responsible ministry. The meat should be distributed by acquisition of a utilization license (patente). This law does the authorities in conformance with local custom. not include utilization of protected species or any of their body parts. Killing of an elephant or trade in its products is therefore completely illegal in ROC. Ordinance No. 94.006 established a mandatory permitting process to sell hunting products costing about US$ 20 per year. It must be associated with a license issued by the Revenue Service (US$ 70 per year). If the vendor, transporter or middleman cannot pay for these two documents, however, he/she can pay for a provisional authorization at MWFHF road checkpoints to sell hunting products, called a Laissez-passer (US$ 10 for three months maximum, non-renewable).

All of the above laws concern only bushmeat obtained from hunting; they make no mention of meat obtained from protected species that were killed in self-defence or natural deaths. Although legislation is ambiguous on the question, all trade in elephant meat is treated as illegal in CAR.

102 Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa – Summary Report DRC

DRC acceded to CITES on 20 July 1976. Hunting in DRC is governed by Law no. 82-002 of 28 May 1982 and Decree No. 014/CAB/MIN/ENV/2004 of 29 April 2004. All subspecies of African elephant fall within Class I, which are totally protected species.

Totally protected species may not be harmed in any way, except in the cases of government-sanctioned scientific research, the higher interests of the government (undefined) or self-defence. Trophies (e.g. tusks) are property of the State and if found or obtained from killing in self-defence, must be turned over to an appropriate government official within 30 days. Any person found with a Class I animal, alive or dead, or any of its products, is considered to have captured or killed it, unless proof to the contrary can be provided. Tusks held in storage by the government must be marked and details of them recorded in a registry. All illegally owned trophies are prohibited from being worked, and any illegal trophy or worked form of the trophy is prohibited from export.

The meat of animals killed in self-defence or administratively cannot be sold. It must be freely distributed to residents in the immediate vicinity. Concerning unprotected species, anyone desiring to exploit commercially wild animals or their products must obtain a licence and pay a tax. These persons must meet certain requirements.

The 2004 decree amends the 1982 law in certain areas. Of relevance to this study are:

Article 41 – The permit to import, export or re-export any wild animal is issued by the CITES management authority.

Article 43 – The import, export or re-export of any wild animal is subject to CITES regulations.

The national Forestry Code (Law nº 011/2002 of 29 August 2002) governs how communities are to utilize forest natural resources, although ministerial regulations for its application are still awaiting signature (ECODIT, 2010). Likewise, there is a new Law on Nature Conservation and the Environment awaiting signature.

Daniel Stiles 103 INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

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